The public followed the affair and was indignant, and freely criticised the Ten in public places; whereupon the Inquisitors ordered all the cafés to be closed two hours after dark. This was especially galling to the Venetians, who were fond of sitting up late, and loved the bright lights of the cafés. One morning a notice appeared on the walls, drawn up in the following terms:-- ‘The Guild of the Night-Thieves wishes to thank his Excellency the “Capo” Barbarigo for having provided them with much more sufficient and convenient [Sidenote: _Rom. viii. 399._] means of earning their bread during the present hard times.’ The Inquisitors’ ordinance was soon modified so as to allow the cafés to remain open till midnight. As for the minor courts, Goldoni, who was brought up to be a lawyer, says that there were nearly as many different ones as there were different kinds of suits possible. They paralysed each other, and could not have worked well even if they had been honest. But they were not. An Avogador acquitted a man accused of theft. The Signors of the [Sidenote: _Mutinelli, Ult. 143._] Night--the chiefs of police--who had committed the accused for trial believed him guilty and determined to examine the papers relating to the trial. [Illustration: THE DOGANA] With this intention they made a search in the house of the Avogador and confiscated the private accounts in which he set down the profit and loss of his judicial industry; for he was a very careful man. Surely enough, the Signors found an entry of one hundred and fifty sequins (£112. 10s.) received for acquitting the thief. About the same time there was a very beautiful dancer called the Cellini at the theatre of San Cassian. [Sidenote: _Mutinelli, Ult. 144._] A magistrate who exercised the righteous functions of an ‘Executor against Blasphemy’ became anxious to get into her good graces, but as she would have nothing to do with him, he brought an accusation against her in his own court, tried her, and condemned her to a severe penalty. But she appealed to the Council of Ten, proved her innocence, and was acquitted. Thereupon the Venetians began to swear ‘by the holy Virgin Cellini.’ With such a state of things in Venice, it was only to be expected that the condition of justice in the provinces should be still worse. When [Sidenote: _Mut. Ult._] Goldoni was Secretary to the Chancery of Feltre, in the Venetian territory, there was a huge scandal about a whole forest cut down and sold without any order or authority from the government. An inquiry was attempted and begun; it was found that more than two hundred persons were implicated, and as it soon became apparent that the same thing had been done before them, within the century, it was judged better to draw a veil over the whole affair.