mbassies,
cafes, and places of public amusement were closed.

The Pope was puzzled, and calling a member of his Noble Guard (it was
the Count de Raymond) he sent him out into the city to see.

When the Count de Raymond returned he told another story. The people,
while deploring the crime, were not surprised at it. Baron Bonelli had
refused to understand the wants of the nation. He had treated the people
as slaves and shed their blood in the streets. Where such opinions were
not openly expressed there was a gloomy silence. Groups could be seen
under the great lamps in the Corso reading the evening papers. Sometimes
a man would mount a chair in front of the Cafe Aragno and read aloud
from the latest "extra." The crowd would listen, stand a moment, and
then disperse.

Next day the journals were full of the assassin. Many things were
incomprehensible in her character, unless you approached it with the
right key. Young and with a fatal beauty, fantastic, audacious, a great
coquette, always giving out a perfume of seduction and feminine ruin,
she was one of those women who live in the atmosphere of infamous
intrigue, and her last victim had been her first friend.

Once more the Pope was puzzled, and he sent out his Noble Guard again.
The Count de Raymond returned to say that in corners of the cafes people
spoke of the Baron as a dead dog, and said that if Donna Roma had killed
him she did a good act, and God would reward her.

Parliament opened after its Easter vacation, and the Count de Raymond
was sent in plain clothes to its first sitting. The galleries and
lobbies were filled, and there was suppressed but intense excitement.
Rumour said the Government had resigned, and that the King, who was in
despair, had been unable to form another ministry. A leader of the Right
was heard to say that Donna Roma had done more for the people in a day
than the Opposition could have accomplished in a hundred years. "If
these agitators on the Left have any qualities of statesmen, now's their
time to show it," he said. But what would Parliament say about the dead
man? The President entered and took his chair. After the minutes had
been read there was a moment's silence. Not a word was uttered, not a
voice was raised. "Let us pass on to the next business," said the
President.

The assizes happened to be in session, and the opening of the trial was
reported on the following day. When the prisoner was asked whether she
pleaded guilty or