There were also extraordinary stories of pins, a prick from which killed one like lightning, of cups of wine poisoned by the infusion of rose petals, of woodcocks cut in half with prepared knives, which poisoned but one-half of the bird, so that he who partook of that half was killed.

"I myself, in my younger days," continued Prada, "had a friend whose bride fell dead in church during the marriage service through simply inhaling a bouquet of flowers.

And so isn't it possible that the famous recipe may really have been handed down, and have remained known to a few adepts ?" "But chemistry has made too much progress," Pierre replied.

"If mysterious poisons were believed in by the ancients and remained undetected in their time it was because there were no means of analysis.
But the drug of the Borgias would now lead the simpleton who might employ it straight to the Assizes.

Such stories are mere nonsense, and at the present day people scarcely tolerate them in newspaper serials and shockers." "Perhaps so," resumed the Count with his uneasy smile.