When I am hindered I am in exile and in
prison, and alone."
The Doge nodded his head in kindly approbation.
"The young man is a true artist," he said.
"All this," said one of the Chiefs of the Ten, "would be well if you
were a Venetian. But you are not, and the accusation says that you have
sold your works to the injury of born Venetians. What have you to say?"
"Sometimes my master has given me money for a beaker, or a plate, or a
bottle," answered Zorzi, in some trepidation, for this was the main
point. "But the things were then his own. How could that do harm to any
one, since no one can make what I can make, for the master's own use?
And once, the other day, as the Signor Giovanni's letter says there, he
persuaded me to take his piece of gold for a beaker he saw in my hand,
and I said that I would ask the master, when he came back, whether I
might keep the money or not; and besides, I left the piece of money on
the table in my master's laboratory, and the beaker in the annealing
oven, when they came to arrest me. That is the only work for which I
ever took money, except from the master himself."
"Why did the Greek captain Aristarchi beat the Governor's men, and carry
you away?" asked another of the Chiefs.
Zorzi was not surprised that the name of his rescuer should be known,
for the Ten were believed to possess universal intelligence.
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