Such is Sanuto's brief narrative of the origin of this conspiracy; and
we have nothing more certain to offer. It is not easy to say whence he
obtained his intelligence. If such a conversation as that which he
relates really did occur, it must have taken place without the presence
of witnesses, and therefore could be disclosed only by one of the
parties. It is far more likely that the chronicler is relating that
which he _supposed_, than that which he _knew_; and, as it
must be admitted that the interview with the admiral of the Arsenal
occurred, and that, immediately after it, the doge was found linked
with the daring band of which that officer was chief, there is no
violation of probability in granting that some such conversation took
place, and that the train was ignited by this collision of two angry
spirits. Whether the plot was in any degree organized beforehand, or
arose at the moment, it is manifestly impossible for us to decide,
without information which cannot now be obtained.

Bertucci Faliero, a nephew of the doge, and Filippo Calendaro, a
seaman of great repute, were summoned to conference immediately. It was
agreed to communicate the design to six other associates; and, during
many nights successively, these plebeian assassins arranged with
the doge, under the roof of his own palace, the massacre of the entire
aristocracy, and the dissolution of the existing government. "It was
concerted that sixteen or seventeen leaders should be stationed in
various parts of the city, each being at the head of forty men, armed
and prepared; but the followers were not to know their destination. On
the appointed day, they were to make affrays amongst themselves here and
there, in order that the duke might have a pretence for tolling the
bells of San Marco, which are never rung but by the order of the duke;
and at the sound of the bells, these sixteen or seventeen, with their