n,
while he was engaged in attacking the gondola of Signor Polani?"

"I cannot say whether it is such a wound as would be caused by a blow
with an oar," Francis said; "but it is certainly, as nearly as
possible, on the spot where I struck the man, just as he was leaping,
sword in hand, into my gondola."

"You stated, at your examination the other day, that it was on the left
temple you struck the blow."

"I did so. I said at once that Signor Ruggiero Mocenigo could not have
been the man who led the assailants, because had he been so he would
assuredly have borne a mark from the blow on the left temple."

"Look at the clothes. Do you see anything there which could lead you to
identify him with your assailant?"

"My assailant was dressed in dark clothes, as this one was. There was
but one distinguishing mark that I noticed, and this is wanting here.
The light of the torch fell upon the handle of a dagger in his girdle.
I saw it but for a moment, but I caught the gleam of gems. It was only
a passing impression, but I could swear that he carried a small gold or
yellow metal-handled dagger, and I believe that it was set with gems,
but to this I should not like to swear."

"Produce the dagger found upon the dead man," one of the council said
to an official.

And the officer produced a small dagger with a fine steel blade and
gold handle, thickly encrusted with gems.

"Is this the dagger?" the senator asked Francis.

"I cannot say that it is the dagger," Francis replied; "but it closely
resembles it, if it is not the same."

"You have no doubt, I suppose, seeing that wound on the temple, the
dagger found in the girdle, and the fact that the body has evidently
only been a few days in the water, that this is the man whom you struck
down in the fray on the canal?"

"No, signor, I have no doubt whatever that it is the same person."

"That will do," the council said. "You can retire; and we thank you, in
the name of justice, for the evidence you have given."

Francis was led back to the gondola, and conveyed to his father's
house. An hour later Signor Polani arrived.

"The matter is finished," he said, "I cannot say satisfactorily to me,
for the punishment is wholly inadequate to the offence, but at any rate
he has not got off altogether unpunished. After you left, we passed
from the prison into the palace, and then the whole council assembled,
as before, in the council chamber. I may tell you that the body which