," he added, "every door has been shut against me!" I was not so
stupid as not to guess the awful tribunal to which an ambassador-elect
had applied, and by which he had been rejected. Opening my eyes wide, I
turned them meaningly on my worthy friend Maffei, as though to ask:
"What devil of a visitor have you brought here for my torment?"

At length the pith of the oration came to light. Admitting me to be
susceptible of justice, humane feeling, religion, honour, magnanimity,
and a host of other virtues, Gratarol laid it down as an axiom that "I
was able and that I ought to stop the performance of the comedy upon the
evening of the 17th, and so long as the world lasted." "_Able_ and
_ought_," exclaimed I to myself; "when I have made it clear to Maffei
that I cannot stir a finger to prevent the play, and have already been
rebuked by a respectable magistrate for attempting to do so!" I
perceived that Maffei had omitted to inform Gratarol of my
powerlessness. However, I determined to hear his speech to the end in
patience. He now proceeded to demonstrate my power by asserting that
Sacchi was not in a position to refuse any of my requests;[68] Sacchi
had declared he would be governed by me in the matter of the comedy;
Sacchi was independent of the patrician Vendramini; it was consequently
my duty to put pressure upon Sacchi; all I had to do was to go to Sacchi
and forbid the performance. "If you do not do so," he continued, "you
will become deservedly an object of hatred to your country; everybody
regards you as the author of my misfortunes, and the public is on the
point of turning round to take my side against you." I knew that this
was unluckily only too probable; but the painful position in which we
were both placed had been created, not by my malice, but by his
credulity and blundering.

When this oration came to an end, I replied as briefly and as calmly as
I could. I began by observing that even if I had the power to stop the
play, I should expose myself to the greatest misconceptions. Everybody
would believe that it had been suspended by an order from the magistracy
in consequence of its libellous character. But that was not the real
question at issue. The question was whether I had or had not the power
to do this. By a succinct enumeration of all the incidents connected
with the revision of the comedy, I proved that neither myself nor Sacchi
could interfere with a performance officially commanded and announced
for