played by Tresham in that yet more bloody conspiracy, which the Papists,
in after days, framed against the three estates of England, was but
a repetition of that now enacted in Venice by Beltramo of Bergamo.
Beltramo had been brought up in a noble family, to which he was closely
attached, that of Nicolo Lioni, of San Stefano; and, anxious to preserve
his patron's life, he went to him on the evening before the rising, and
entreated him to remain at home on the morrow. The singular nature of
the request excited surprise, which was increased to suspicion by the
ambiguous answers returned to farther inquiries which it suggested. By
degrees, every particular of the treason was revealed; and Lioni heard
of the impending danger with terror, and of the hands by which it was
threatened, with astonishment and slowly-accorded belief. Not a moment
was to be lost; he secured Beltramo, therefore, and, having communicated
with a few friends, they resolved upon assembling the heads of the
different magistracies, and immediately seizing such ringleaders as
had been denounced. These were taken, at their own houses, without
resistance. Precautions were adopted against any tumultuous gathering
of the mechanics of the Arsenal, and strict orders were issued to the
keeper of the _Campanile_ not on any account to toll the bells.

In the course to be pursued with the lesser malefactors, no difficulty
was likely to arise: the rack and the gibbet were their legal portion.
But for the doge, the law afforded no precedent; and, upon a crime which
it had not entered into the mind of man to conceive (as with that nation
which, having never contemplated parricide, had neglected to provide
any punishment for it), no tribunal known to the constitution was
competent to pass judgment. The Council of X. demanded the assistance of
a _giunta_ of twenty nobles, who were to give advice, but not to
ballot; and this body having been constituted, "they sent for my Lord
Marino Faliero the Duke, and my Lord was then consorting in the palace