; and when the
cure was completed, he received a rich gold chain and knighthood for his
service. Every medical man suggested some fresh application. Some of
them, suspecting poison, treated the wounds with theriac and antidotes.
Others cut into the flesh and probed. Meanwhile the loss of blood had so
exhausted Sarpi's meager frame that for more than twenty days he had no
strength to move or lift his hands. Not a word of impatience escaped his
lips; and when Acquapendente began to medicate the worst wound in his
face, he moved the dozen doctors to laughter by wittily observing, 'And
yet the world maintains that it was given _Stilo Romanae Curiae_.'[145]
His old friend Malipiero would fain have kept the dagger as a relic. But
Sarpi suspended it at the foot of a crucifix in the church of the Servi,
with this appropriate inscription, _Dei Filio Liberatori_. When he had
recovered from his long suffering, the Republic assigned their Counselor
an increase of pension in order that he might maintain a body of armed
guards, and voted him a house in S. Marco for the greater security of
his person. But Sarpi begged to be allowed to remain among the friars,
with whom he had spent his life, and where his vocation bound him. In
the future he took a few obvious precautions, passing in a gondola to
the Rialto and thence on foot through the crowded Merceria to the Ducal
Palace, and furthermore securing the good offices of his attendants in
the convent by liberal gifts of money. Otherwise, he refused to alter
the customary tenor of his way.

[Footnote 144: Dispatch to Fr. Contarini under date September 25, 1607,
quoted in Campbell's _Life of Sarpi_, p. 145.]

[Footnote 145: Fulgenzio's _Life_, p. 61. A.G. Campbell asserts that
this celebrated _mot_ of Sarpi's is not to be found in Fulgenzio's MS.
It occurs, however, quite naturally in the published work. The first
edition of the _Life_ appeared in 1646, eight years before Fulgenzio's
death. The discrepancies between it and the MS. may therefore have been
intended by the author.]

The State of Venice resented this attack upon their servant as though it
had been directed against the majesty of the Republic. A proclamation
was immediately issued, offering enormous rewards for the capture or
murder of the criminals, especially so worded as to insinuate the belief
that men of high position in Rome were implicated. The names of the
chief conspirators were as follows: Ridolfo Poma, a broken Ve