"Ha! ha! ha!"

"Think not that Abellino speaks thus from want of resolution. Speak
but the word, and I murder half the senators of Venice; but still--"

"Fool! know, the bravo must be above crediting the nurse's
antiquated tales of vice and virtue. What is virtue? What is vice?
Nothing but such things as forms of government, custom, manners, and
education have made sacred: and that which men are able to make
honourable at one time, it is in their power to make dishonourable
at another, whenever the humour takes them; had not the senate
forbidden us to give opinions freely respecting the politics of
Venice, there would have been nothing wrong in giving such opinions;
and were the senate to declare that it is right to give such
opinions, that which to-day is thought a crime would be thought
meritorious to-morrow. Then, prithee, let us have no more of such
doubts as these. We are men, as much as the Doge and his senators,
and have reasons as much as THEY have to lay down the law of right
and wrong, and to alter the law of right and wrong, and to decree
what shall be vice, and what shall be virtue."

Abellino laughed. Matteo proceeded with increased animation -

"Perhaps you will tell me that your trade is DISHONOURABLE! And
what, then, is the thing called HONOUR! 'Tis a word, an empty
sound, a mere fantastic creature of the imagination! Ask, as you
traverse some frequented street, in what honour consists? The
usurer will answer--'To be honourable is to be rich, and he has most
honour who can heap up the greatest quantity of sequins.' 'By no