We went together and gave it to the magistrate called _El Oydor del Torron_[A]. The more I observed my lawyer, the more was I convinced that he went regularly to work, as much to maintain my rights as to vex his brother lawyer Bentivoglio; but whether this latter had been aware of my design, or that he was an intimate of the auditor or register, no sooner was my declaration against Alexander delivered in, than he had a hint of it, and another was presented against me before the same magistrate, in the name of the lawyer Bentivoglio, setting forth that I had defamed his son, requiring damages for the injury done his reputation, and further that I should have corporal punishment. My lawyer said that was nothing; “if Bentivoglio,” said he, “has no more skill to show us than this, we have not much to fear; we shall be able to answer him when the auditor has answered our petition,” which he soon did. But in what manner, good heaven? by ordering that within three days at the furthest, I should produce my evidence of the robbery of which I accused Signor Alexander Bentivoglio. [A] The Auditor of the Tower, or Judge in criminal cases. Had I dispatched a man express to Sienna for a copy of the allegations mentioned in my declaration, I could not have had an answer in so short a time. The auditor could not be ignorant of this, since in my petition I had expressly declared that it was from Sienna that I expected my strongest proofs. My lawyer remonstrated in a second petition, that it was against custom to prescribe a fixed time to the plaintiff. By this he hoped at least to maintain a longer time, but he was again disappointed. Not being able now to doubt any longer the connexion that subsisted between the auditor and the honest man I had to contend with, he said to me with the utmost confusion, and blushing at the horrible injustice I met with in his own country; “I have no other advice to give you but to quit this town; it is not safe for you to remain here; I see but too well the wicked trick they have served you; you will only spend your time and money here to no purpose, and I am not sure that you will even get off at so cheap a rate. In one word you are a stranger: and I blush to confess that every thing is thought lawful here against foreigners.”