The secretary was reading Grimani's letter, and I assured his excellency that it was a false report, for I left you in bed this morning, suffering from a sprained ankle.

I told him likewise that at twelve o'clock last night you were very near death from a severe attack of colic." "Was it at midnight that Razetta was so well treated ?" "So says the official report.

The war secretary wrote at once to M.
Grimani and informed him that you have not left the fort, and that you are even now detained in it, and that the plaintiff is at liberty, if he chooses, to send commissaries to ascertain the fact.

Therefore, my dear abbe, you must prepare yourself for an interrogatory." "I expect it, and I will answer that I am very sorry to be innocent." Three days afterwards, a commissary came to the fort with a clerk of the court, and the proceedings were soon over.

Everybody knew that I had sprained my ankle; the chaplain, the surgeon, my body-servant, and several others swore that at midnight I was in bed suffering from colic.
My alibi being thoroughly proved, the avogador sentenced Razetta and the Forlan to pay all expenses without prejudice to my rights of action.
After this judgment, the major advised me to address to the secretary of war a petition which he undertook to deliver himself, and to claim my release from the fort.