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Abellino received the instrurasped the weapons, of what immense sums must your
robberies haveand offended, "ast us
robbery is unknown What? Dost take us for common plunderers, for
mere thieves, cut-purses, housebreakers, and villains of that low,
miserable sta worse; for,
to speak openly, Matteo, villains of that sta a purse or a casket, which can easily be filled again;
but that which we take from others is a jehich 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 Judghest, 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 bravothe nurse's
antiquated tales of vice and virtue What is virtue? What is vice?
Nothing but such things as forovernment, 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 huive opinions freely respecting the politics of