business of the Tribunal of Venice is only to judge and to doom. The
guilty party is not required to have any share in the matter; he is like
a nail, which to be driven into a wall needs only to be struck.

To a certain extent I was acquainted with the ways of the Colossus which
was crushing me under foot, but there are things on earth which one can
only truly understand by experience. If amongst my readers there are any
who think such laws unjust, I forgive them, as I know they have a strong
likeness to injustice; but let me tell them that they are also necessary,
as a tribunal like the Venetian could not subsist without them. Those who
maintain these laws in full vigour are senators, chosen from amongst the
fittest for that office, and with a reputation for honour and virtue.

The last day of September I passed a sleepless night, and was on thorns
to see the dawn appear, so sure was I that that day would make me free.
The reign of those villains who had made me a captive drew to a close;
but the dawn appeared, Lawrence came as usual, and told me nothing new.
For five or six days I hovered between rage and despair, and then I
imagined that for some reasons which to me were unfathomable they had
decided to keep me prisoner for the remainder of my days. This awful idea
only made me laugh, for I knew that it was in my power to remain a slave
for no long time, but only till I should take it into my own hands to
break my prison. I knew that I should escape or die: 'Deliberata morte
ferocior'.

In the beginning of November I seriously formed the plan of forcibly
escaping from a place where I was forcibly kept. I began to rack my
brains to find a way of carrying the idea into execution, and I conceived
a hundred schemes, each one bolder than the other, but a new plan always
made me give up the one I was on the point of accepting.