" She then arose, proceeded to the
platform, where she devoutly kissed the stigmata; then leaving her
slippers at the foot of the scaffold, she nimbly ascended the ladder, and
instructed beforehand, promptly lay down on the plank, without exposing
her naked shoulders. But her precautions to shorten the bitterness of
death were of no avail, for the pope, knowing her impetuous disposition,
and fearing lest she might be led into the commission of some sin between
absolution and death, had given orders that the moment Beatrice was
extended on the scaffold a signal gun should be fired from the castle of
Sant' Angelo; which was done, to the great astonishment of everybody,
including Beatrice herself, who, not expecting this explosion, raised
herself almost upright; the pope meanwhile, who was praying at Monte
Cavallo, gave her absolution 'in articulo mortis'. About five minutes
thus passed, during which the sufferer waited with her head replaced on
the block; at length, when the executioner judged that the absolution had
been given, he released the spring, and the axe fell.

A gruesome sight was then afforded: whilst the head bounced away on one
side of the block, on the other the body rose erect, as if about to step
backwards; the executioner exhibited the head, and disposed of it and the
body as before. He wished to place Beatrice's body with that of her
stepmother, but the brotherhood of Mercy took it out of his hands, and as
one of them was attempting to lay it on the bier, it slipped from him and
fell from the scaffold to the ground below; the dress being partially
torn from the body, which was so besmeared with dust and blood that much
time was occupied in washing it. Poor Bernardo was so overcome by this
horrible scene that he swooned away for the third time, and it was
necessary to revive him with stimulants to witness the fate of his elder
brother.

The turn of Giacomo at length arrived: he had witnessed the death of his
stepmother and his sister, and his clothes were covered with their blood;
the executioner approached him and tore off his cloak, exposing his bare
breast covered with the wounds caused by the grip of red-hot pincers; in
this state, and half-naked, he rose to his feet, and turning to his
brother, said--

"Bernardo, if in my examination I have compromised and accused you, I
have done so falsely, and although I have already disavowed this
declaration, I repeat, at the moment of appearing before G