When the intended victim appeared, the idiot with much difficulty drew from beneath his waistcoat--a table-fork! Antonelli saw the terrible weapon, and bounded backwards with a spring which an Alpine chamois-hunter might have envied.

The miserable assassin was instantly seized, bound, and delivered over to justice.

The Roman tribunals, so often lenient towards the really guilty, had no mercy for this real innocent.

He was beheaded.

The Cardinal, full of pity, fell--officially--at the Pope's feet, and asked for a pardon which he well knew would be refused.