"You hear of castles being surprised, and the people massacred without a chance of resistance; of villages being burned, and the people butchered unresistingly.

I don't think there is so much more fairness one way than the other.

Polani knows he will have to be careful, and if he likes he can hire bravos to put Ruggiero out of the way, just as Ruggiero can do to remove him.

There's a good deal to be said for both sides of the question." Francis felt this was so, and that although he had an abhorrence of the Venetian method of settling quarrels, he saw that as far as the public were concerned, it was really preferable to the feudal method, of both parties calling out their retainers and going to war with each other, especially as assassinations played no inconsiderable part in the feudal struggles of the time.
On the Thursday night the gondola was in waiting at the agreed spot.
Francis had thought it probable that the stranger might this time ask some questions as to where they lived and their usual place of plying for hire, and would endeavour to find out as much as he could about them, as they could not but suspect that he was engaged in some very unusual enterprise.

He had therefore warned Giuseppi to be very careful in his replies.