human
Eh! said our friend,
gpt
I believe you.
human
We mean those under the Villa P----.
gpt
Exactly.
human
You don't mean that those are _not_ the veritable Ecelino prisons?
gpt
Certainly they are nothing of the kind. The Ecelino prisons were destroyed when the Crusaders took Padua, with the exception of the tower which the Venetian Republic converted into an observatory.
human
But at least these prisons are on the site of Ecelino's castle?
gpt
Nothing of the sort. His castle in that case would have been outside of the old city walls.
human
And those tortures and the prisons are all--
gpt
Things got up for show. No doubt, Ecelino used such things, and many worse, of which even the ingenuity of Signor P---- cannot conceive. But he is an eccentric man, loving the horrors of history, and what he can do to realize them he has done in his prisons.
human
But the custodian, how could he lie so?
gpt
Eh! easily. And perhaps he even believed what he said.