when under a cloud. It is all but impossible
to punish thieves in Venice, where they are
very bold and numerous; for the police are
too much occupied with political surveillance
to give due attention to mere cutpurses and
housebreakers, and even when they make an
arrest people can hardly be got to bear wit-
ness against their unhappy prisoner. Po-
vareto anca lu! There is no work and no
money: people must do something; so they
steal. Ci vuol pazienza! Bear witness
against an ill-fated fellow-sufferer? God
forbid! Stop a thief? I think a burglar
might run from Rialto to San Marco, and
not one compassionate soul in the Merceria
would do aught to arrest him -- povareto!
Thieves came to the house of a friend of
mine at noonday, when his servant was out.
They tied their boat to his landing, entered
his house, filled their boat with plunder from
it, and rowed out into the canal. The neigh-
bors on the floor above saw them, and cried,
"Thieves! thieves!" It was in the most
frequented part of the Grand Canal, where
scores of boats passed and repassed; but no
one molested the thieves, and these povareti
escaped with their booty. ¹

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