with people of great estate, gentlemen, and other good men, none of whom
knew yet how the fact stood."

The ringleaders were immediately hanged between the Red Columns on the
_Piazzetta_--some singly, some in couples; and the two chiefs of
them, Bertuccio Israello and Calendaro, with a cruel precaution not
uncommon in Venice, were previously gagged. Nor was the process of the
highest delinquent long protracted. He appears neither to have denied
nor to have extenuated his guilt; and, 'on Friday the 16th day of April,
judgment was given in the Council of X. that my Lord Marino Faliero the
Duke should have his head cut off, and that the execution should be done
on the landing-place of the stone staircase, the Giant's Stairs, where
the doges take their oath when they first enter the palace. On the
following day, the doors of the palace being shut, the duke had his head
cut off, about the hour of noon; and the cap of estate was taken from
the duke's head before he came down the staircase. When the execution
was over, it is said, that one of the chiefs of the Council of X. went
to the columns of the palace against the Piazza, and, displaying the
bloody sword, exclaimed, "Justice has fallen on the traitor!" and, the
gates being then opened, the populace eagerly rushed in to see the doge
who had been executed.'

The body of Faliero was conveyed, by torchlight, in a gondola, and
unattended by the customary ceremonies, to the church of San Giovanni
and San Paolo; in the outer wall of which a stone coffin is still
imbedded, with an illegible inscription, which once presented the
words, _Hic jacet Marinus Feletro Dux._ His lands and goods were
confiscated to the state, with the exception of 2,000 ducats, of which
he was permitted to dispose; and, yet further to transmit to posterity
the memory of his enormous crime, his portrait was not admitted to range