524 claudio povolo
the large group of police then returned to Vicenza, where their captain,
daniele di stefani, paused only to secure orgiano in one of the strongest
cells before reporting to the podestà. di stefani almost immediately had
to retrace his steps, however, and retrieve the prisoner, whom the chief
of the guards had just put into chains. the podestà, Vincenzo gussoni,
ordered that orgiano be taken from his cell to the town hall, announcing
his intention to interrogate the prisoner immediately, and to do so with
his judges, whom he had summoned by messenger. thus, in the middle of
the night, began the first interrogation of the Vicentine nobleman Paolo
orgiano, the interrogation that opened the long investigation and trial
that would end almost two years later with orgiano’s condemnation to
life in prison. the accusations made against him were listed in detail in
the long complaint that the community of orgiano presented to Venice,
charges that included numerous rapes (including unnatural ones), inju-
ries, beatings, threats, impeded marriages, and, more generally, a desire
to dominate the village like a tyrant.
End of an Outlaw
17 august 1617, around 8 o’clock in the evening. the western bank of Lake
garda. the village of guardola on the plateau overlooking the north-
ern part of the lake’s basin. it had been a frantic rush to the valley with
weapons drawn and a body laced with wounds. in the distance, the pierc-
ing cries of men calling to each other, the excited orders of the leaders
intermixed with arquebus shots fired into the air to signal the presence
of the armed groups. the pain and the physical exhaustion, which had
worsened over the course of the day, had seemed to disappear with the
discovery of an unexpected yet desperately desired escape route. but it
had all been in vain. suddenly the three men found the way blocked by
an unexpected armed troop. it was the end, and there was nothing left
to do except die fighting, accompanied by his two companions and the
honor that had been with him his entire life. the original group of six men
had come down into the village at first light and, without any hesitation,
kidnapped giovanni cavaliere, one of the locality’s richest landowners,
who just the day before had hosted giustiniano badoer, capitano of the
riviera del garda. badoer, in fact, had just finished an inspection tour of
the settlements along the upper lake shore, making sure that the popula-
tion, which had been armed and organized into troops each headed by a
designated leader and deputy, were ready to respond to a possible attack
by enemy forces of the archduke, with whom the republic had been at