"Isaiah denounces such legislation, 'Woe unto them that decree
unrighteous decrees.'
"Wherefore I declare the justice of the cause of the Republic, and the
nullity of any judgment that may be pronounced against her in this
matter.
"Nor shall evil befall one for a sin not committed, nor can there be
disobedience to a mandate which hath been issued, without lawful
authority, by him who proclaims it; and authority, transcended, is no
longer lawful."
XX
When Marcantonio, finally released from his long day of service in the
Senate Chamber, sought the private apartments of the Doge, where Marina
with her maidens was waiting for him, he found her lying back, wan and
spiritless, in one of the great gold and crimson arm-chairs of the state
salon; her eyes were closed, her lips were moving in prayer, but her
rosary had dropped from her weak clasp. Some of her maidens, as thus
doing their lady truest service, were still kneeling with hopeless
petitions to the Holy Mother to avert the doom from Venice; but one, the
Lady Beata, who was tenderly devoted to her, had not ceased from efforts
to rouse her with nameless little gracious cares.
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