es. You cause a serious person
like the Signor Giovanni to die of laughing."

CHAPTER XV

Giovanni sat in his father's own room at home, with shut doors, and he
was writing. He had received as good an education as any young nobleman
or rich merchant's son in Venice, but writing was always irksome to him,
and he generally employed a scribe rather than take the pen himself.
To-day he preferred to dispense with help, instead of trusting the
discretion of a secretary; and this is what he was setting down.

"I, Giovanni Beroviero, the son of Angelo, of Murano, the glass-maker,
being in my father's absence and in his stead the Master of our
honourable Guild of Glass-makers, do entreat your Magnificence to
interfere and act for the preservation of our ancient rights and
privileges and for the maintenance of the just laws of Venice, and for
the honour of the Republic, and for the public good of Murano. There is
a certain Zorzi, called the Ballarin, who was a servant of the aforesaid
Angelo Beroviero, a Dalmatian and a foreigner and a fellow of no worth,
who formerly swept the floor of the said Angelo's furnace room, which
the said Angelo keeps for his private use. This fellow therefore, this
foreigner, the said Angelo being absent on a long journey, was left by
him to watch the fire in the said room, there being certain new glass
in the crucibles of the said furnace, which the said Zorzi, called the
Ballarin, was to keep hot a certain number of days. And now in the
torrid heat of summer, the canicular days being at hand, the furnaces in
the glass-house of the said Angelo have been extinguished. But this
Zorzi, called the Ballarin, although he has removed from the furnace of
the said Angelo the glass which was to be kept hot, does insolently and
defiantly refuse to put out the fire in the said furnace, and forces the
boys to make the fire all night, to the great injury of their health,
because the canicular days are approaching. But the said Zorzi, called
the Ballarin, like a raging devil come upon earth from his master Satan,
heeds no heat. And he has no respect of laws, nor of persons, nor of the
honourable Guild, nor of the Republic, working day and night at the
glass-blower's art, just as if he were not a Dalmatian, and a foreigner,
and a low fellow of no worth. Moreover, he has made glass himself, which
it is forbidden for any foreigner to make throughout the dominions of
the Republic. Moreover, it is a good white