Note 424 — Scene II.—The House where the Conspirators meet.

["The members of the Ten (Il Cousiglio de' Dieci) were elected in the Great Council for one year only, and were not re-eligible for the year after they had held office. Every month the Ten elected three of their own number as chiefs, or Capi of the Council.... The court consisted, besides the Ten, of the Doge and his six councillors, seventeen members in all, of whom twelve were necessary to make a quorum. One of the Avogadori di Comun, or State advocates, was always present, without the power to vote, but to act as clerk to the court, informing it of the law, and correcting it where its procedure seemed informal. Subsequently it became customary to add twenty members to the Council, elected in the Maggior Consiglio, for each important case as it arose."—Venice, an Historical Sketch, by Horatio F. Brown, 1893, pp. 177, 178. (See, too, Les Archives de Venise, par Armand Baschet, 1870, p. 525.)]