Pagina 443 di 1118

But to give, as they said, a blow to the hoop, and another to the

cask, and increase the efficacy of their caresses by a little

awe, they took measures to seize some of the seditious, and this

was the principal duty of the _Capitano di Giustizia_. His

blood-hounds had been in the field since the commencement of the

tumult; and this self-styled Ambrose Fusella was a police officer

in disguise, who, having listened to the famous sermon of Renzo,

concluded him to be fair game. Finding that he had but newly

arrived from his village, he would have conducted him immediately

to prison, as the safest inn in the city; but in this, as we have

seen, he did not succeed. He could, however, carry to the police

certain information of his name, surname, and country, besides

many other conjectures; so that when the host arrived to tell

what he knew of Renzo, their knowledge was already more precise

than his.