terrible fellow to deal with.

Falieri.--HE terrible. I tell you he is the most contemptible
blockhead that the universe can furnish! Courage perhaps he
possesses, but of brains not an atom.

Contarino.--And _I_ tell you that Andreas is as brave as a lion, and
as crafty as a fox.

Falieri.--Pshaw! pshaw! Everything would go to rack and ruin were
it not for the wiser heads of this triumvirate of counsellors, whom
Heaven confound! Deprive him of Paolo Manfrone, Conari, and
Lomellino, and the Doge would stand there looking as foolish as a
schoolboy who was going to be examined and had forgotten his lesson.

Parozzi.--Falieri is in the right.

Memmo.--Quite, quite.

Falieri.--And then Andreas is as proud as a beggar grown rich and
dressed in his first suit of embroidery. By St. Anthony, he is
become quite insupportable. Do you not observe how he increases the
number of his attendants daily?

Memmo.--Nay, that is an undoubted fact.

Contarino.--And then, to what an unbounded extent has he carried his
influence. The Signoria, the Quaranti, the Procurators of St. Mark,
the Avocatori, all think and act exactly as it suits the Doge's
pleasure and convenience! Every soul of them depends as much on