y, for all his speed, and it was plain to see who fled and who
pursued; in another moment there was only the length of two lances
between them, and then suddenly Caesar appeared, armed with one of those
long two handed swords which the French are accustomed to use, and just
when the bull, almost close upon Don Alfonso, came in front of Caesar he
brandished the sword, which flashed like lightning, and cut off his head,
while his body, impelled by the speed of the run, fell to the ground ten
paces farther on. This blow was so unexpected, and had been performed
with such dexterity, that it was received not with mere clapping but with
wild enthusiasm and frantic outcry. Caesar, apparently remembering
nothing else in his hour of triumph but the scream that had been caused
by his former danger, picked up the bull's head, and, giving it to one of
his equerries, ordered him to lay it as an act of homage at the feet of
the fair Venetian who had bestowed upon him so lively a sign of interest.
This fete, besides affording a triumph to each of the young men, had
another end as well; it was meant to prove to the populace that perfect
goodwill existed between the two, since each had saved the life of the
other. The result was that, if any accident should happen to Caesar,
nobody would dream of accusing Alfanso; and also if any accident should
happen to Alfonso, nobody would dream, of accusing Caesar.

There was a supper at the Vatican. Alfonso made an elegant toilet, and
about ten o'clock at night prepared to go from the quarters he inhabited
into those where the pope lived; but the door which separated the two
courts of the building was shut, and knock as he would, no one came to
open it. Alfonso then thought that it was a simple matter for him to go
round by the Piazza of St. Peter's; so he went out unaccompanied through
one of the garden gates of the Vatican and made his way across the gloomy
streets which led to the stairway which gave on the piazza. But scarcely
had he set his foot on the first step when he was attacked by a band of
armed men. Alfonso would have drawn his sword; but before it was out of
the scabbard he had received two blows from a halberd, one on his head,
the other on his shoulder; he was stabbed in the side, and wounded both
in the leg and in the temple. Struck down by these five blows, he lost
his footing and fell to the ground unconscious; his assassins, supposing
he was dead, at once remounted the st