guards:

"Take his chains off him. For every person accused should appear freely
before us."

And Giovanni thought:

"Why does the Judge pronounce words that are not straight?"

And the first of the Magistrates began to question the holy man, and
said to him:

"Giovanni, bad man that you are, being thrown in prison by the august
clemency of the laws, you have spoken against those laws. You have
contrived with wicked men, chained in the same dungeon as yourself, a
plot to overthrow the order stablished in this city."

The holy man Giovanni made answer:

"Nay! I but spoke for Justice and Truth. If the laws of the city are
agreeable to Justice and Truth, I have not spoken against them. I have
only spoken words of loving-kindness. I said:

"'Strive not to destroy force by force. Be peaceable in the midst of
wars, to the end the spirit of God may rest on you like a little bird on
the top of a poplar in the valley that is flooded by the torrent.' I
said, 'Be gentle toward the men of violence.'"

Then the Judge cried out in anger: