us to itself, and
he was an idiot. Instigated by some of the secret societies, this poor
crazed wretch concealed himself beneath the staircase of the Vatican,
and awaited the coming of the Cardinal. 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. He
pays the widow a pension: is not this the act of a clever man?

Since the day when that formidable fork glittered before his eyes, he
has taken excessive precautions. His horses are broken to gallop
furiously through the streets, at considerable public risk.
Occasionally, his carriage knocks down and runs over a little boy or
girl. With characteristic magnanimity, he sends the parents fifty
crowns.

Antonelli has been compared to Mazarin. They have, in common, the fear
of death, inordinate love of money, a strong family feeling, utter
indifference to the people's welfare, contempt for mankind, and some
other accidental points of resemblance. They were born in the same
mountains, or nearly so. One obtained the influence over a woman's
heart which the other possesses over the mind of an old man. Both
governed unscrupulously, and both have merited and obtained the hatred
of their contemporaries. They have talked French comically, without
being insensible to any of the delicate niceties of the language.

Still there would be manifest injustice in placing them in the same
rank. The selfish Mazarin dictated to Europe the treaties of
Westphalia, and the Peace of the Pyrenees: he founded by diplomacy the
greatness of Louis XIV., and managed the affairs of the French
monarchy, without in any way neglecting his own.

Antonelli has made his fortune at the expense of the nation, the Pope,
and the Church. Mazarin may be compared to a skilful but rascally
tailor, who dresses his customers well, while he contrives to cabbage
sundry yards of their cloth; Antonelli, to those Jews of the Middle
Ages, who demolished the Coliseum for the sake of the old iron in the
walls.

CHAP