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An honest man is generally fearless and undaunted in presence of

the wicked; nevertheless, the father, with the testimony of a

good conscience and a firm conviction of the justice of his

cause, with a mixture of horror and compassion for Don Roderick,

felt a degree of embarrassment in approaching him. He was seated

at table, surrounded by guests; on his right was Count Attilio,

his colleague in libertinism, who had come from Milan to visit

him. To the left was seated, with respectful submissiveness,

tempered, however, with conscious security, the podestà of the

place,-he whose duty it was, according to the proclamation, to

cause justice to be done to Renzo Tramaglino, and to inflict the

allotted penalty on Don Roderick. Nearly opposite to the podestà

sat our learned Doctor Azzecca Garbugli, with his black cap and

his red nose; and over against him two obscure guests, of whom

our story says nothing beyond a general mention of their

toad-eating qualities.