Abellino received the instruments of death, but his hand shook as it
grasped them.
"Possessed of such unfailing weapons, of what immense sums must your
robberies have made you master!"
"Scoundrel!" interrupted Matteo, frowning and offended, "amongst us
robbery is unknown. What? Dost take us for common plunderers, for
mere thieves, cut-purses, housebreakers, and villains of that low,
miserable stamp?"
"Perhaps what you wish me to take you for is something worse; for,
to speak openly, Matteo, villains of that stamp are contented within
plundering a purse or a casket, which can easily be filled again;
but that which we take from others is a jewel which a man never has
but once, and which stolen can never be replaced. Are we not, then,
a thousand times more atrocious plunderers?"
"By the house at Loretto, I think you have a mind to moralise,
Abellino?"
"Hark ye, Matteo, only one question. At the Day of Judgment, which
think you will hold his head highest, the thief or the assassin?"
"Ha! ha! ha!"
"Think not that Abellino speaks thus from want of resolution. Speak
but the word, and I murder half the senators of Venice; but still--"
"Fool! know, the bravo must be above crediting the nurse's
antiquated tales of vice and virtue. What is virtue? What is vice?
Nothing but such things as forms of government, custom, manners, and
education have made sacred: and that which men are able to make
honourable at one time, it is in their power to make dishonourable
at another, whenever the humour takes them; had not the senate
forbidden us to give opinions freely respecting the politics of
Venice, there would have been nothing wrong in giving such opinions;
and were the senate to declare that it is right to give such
opinions, that which to-day is thought a crime would be thought
meritorious to-morrow. Then, prithee, let us have no more of such
doubts as these. We are men, as much as the Doge and his senators,
and have reasons as much as THEY have to lay down the law of right
and wrong, and to alter the law of right and wrong, and to decree
what shall be vice, and what shall be virtue."
Abellino laughed. Matteo proceeded with increased animation "Perhaps you will tell me that your trade is DISHONOURABLE! And
what, then, is the thing called HONOUR! 'Tis a word, an empty
sound, a mere fantastic creature of the imagination! Ask, as you
traverse some frequented street, in what honour consists? The
usurer will answer--'To be honourable is to be rich, and he has most
honour who can heap up the greatest quantity of sequins.' 'By no
means,' cries the voluptuary; 'honour consists in being beloved by a
very handsome woman, and finding no virtue proof against your
attacks.' 'How mistaken!' interrupts the general; 'to conquer whole
cities, to destroy whole armies, to ruin all provinces, THAT indeed
brings REAL honour.' The man of learning places his renown in the
number of pages which he has either written or read; the tinker, in
the number of pots and kettles which he has made or mended; the nun,
in the number of GOOD things which she has done, or BAD things which
she has resisted; the coquette, in the list of her admirers; the
Republic, in the extent of her provinces; and thus, my friend, every
one thinks that honour consists in something different from the
rest. And why, then, should not the bravo think that honour
consists in reaching the perfection of his trade, and in guiding a
dagger to the heart of an enemy with unerring aim?"