Navis was the man for that. Of a wily and malicious character, he understood nothing about the liberties of Geneva; but he was a skilful and a crafty lawyer. ‘He so mixes retail truth with wholesale falsehood,’ people said, ‘that he makes you believe the whole lump is true. If any iniquity of the bishop’s is discovered, straight he cuts a plug to stop the hole. He is continually forging new counts, and calling for adjournments.’ Navis, finding himself at the end of his resources, began to turn and twist the safe-conduct every way: it expressly forbade the detention of Berthelier’s person. That mattered not. ‘I demand that Berthelier be arrested,’ he said, ‘and be examined in custody; for the safe-conduct, if you weigh it well, is not opposed to this.’[144]--‘The first of virtues,’ said Berthelier, ‘is to keep your promise.’ Navis, little touched by this morality, resolved to obtain his request by dint of importunity; the next day he required that ‘Berthelier should be shut up closely in prison;’ on the 20th of April, he moved that ‘he should be incarcerated;’ and on the following day, he made the same request; about the end of May he demanded on two different occasions, not only that ‘the noble citizen should be arrested but tortured also.’ ... All these unjust prayers were refused by the court.[145] Navis, being embarrassed and irritated, multiplied his accusations; his plaint was like an overflowing torrent: ‘The accused,’ he said, ‘is a brawler, fighter, promoter of quarrels, illegal meetings, and seditions, rebellious to the prince and his officers, accustomed to carry out his threats, a debaucher of the young men of the city, and all without having ever been corrected of his faults and excesses.’--‘I confess that I am not corrected of these faults,’ answered Berthelier with disdain, ‘because I never was guilty of them.’[146] It was determined to associate with the syndics some commissioners devoted to the bishop; but the syndics replied that this would be contrary to law. The vidame and Navis, not knowing what to do next, wrote to the duke and the prelate to find some good grievances. ‘You shall have them,’ they answered; ‘we have certain witnesses to examine here, this side the mountains.’ ... Who were these witnesses? Navis little imagined that one of them was his own son, and that the inquiry would end in a catastrophe that would extort from him a cry of anguish. Let us now see what was going on at Turin.[147]