g, and laying
his hand on the elder's shoulder. "Satan was a blunderer, an introducer
of _novita_, who made a stupendous failure. If he had succeeded, we
should all have been worshipping him, and his portrait would have been
more flattered."

"Well, well," said Cennini, "I say not thy doctrine is not too clever
for Satan: I only say it is wicked enough for him."

"I tell you," said Macchiavelli, "my doctrine is the doctrine of all men
who seek an end a little farther off than their own noses. Ask our
Frate, our prophet, how his universal renovation is to be brought about:
he will tell you, first, by getting a free and pure government; and
since it appears that this cannot be done by making all Florentines love
each other, it must be done by cutting off every head that happens to be
obstinately in the way. Only if a man incurs odium by sanctioning a
severity that is not thorough enough to be final, he commits a blunder.
And something like that blunder, I suspect, the Frate has committed. It
was an occasion on which he might have won some lustre by exerting
himself to maintain the Appeal; instead of that, he has lost lustre, and
has gained no strength."

Before any one else could speak, there came the expected announcement
that the prisoners were about to leave the council-chamber; and the
majority of those who were present hurried towards the door, intent on
securing the freest passage to the Bargello in the rear of the
prisoners' guard; for the scene of the execution was one that drew alike
those who were moved by the deepest passions and those who were moved by
the coldest curiosity.

Tito was one of those who remained behind. He had a native repugnance
to sights of death and pain, and five days ago whenever he had thought
of this execution as a possibility he had hoped that it would not take
place, and that the utmost sentence would be exile: his own safety
demanded no more. But now he felt that it would be a welcome guarantee
of his security when he had learned that Bernardo del Nero's head was
off the shoulders. The new knowledge and new attitude towards him
disclosed by Romola on the day of his return, had given him a new dread
of the power she possessed to make his position insecure. If any act of
hers only succeeded in making him an object of suspicion and odium, he
foresaw not only frustration, but frustration under unpleasant
circumstances. Her belief in Baldassarre had clearly determined her
wav