iscovered in the secret archives
of the Vatican. It is perhaps well to tell a little
something about this obscure document, which, in the main,
is of interest to the historian only.

Pervaise was an American, of French descent, who in 1913
A.D., was lying in the Tombs Prison, New York City, awaiting
trial for murder. From his confession we learn that he was
not a criminal. He was warm-blooded, passionate, emotional.
In an insane fit of jealousy he killed his wife--a very
common act in those times. Pervaise was mastered by the fear
of death, all of which is recounted at length in his
confession. To escape death he would have done anything,
and the police agents prepared him by assuring him that he
could not possibly escape conviction of murder in the first
degree when his trial came off. In those days, murder in
the first degree was a capital offense. The guilty man or
woman was placed in a specially constructed death-chair,
and, under the supervision of competent physicians, was
destroyed by a current of electricity. This was called
electrocution, and it was very popular during that period.
Anaesthesia, as a mode of compulsory death, was not
introduced until later.

This man, good at heart but with a ferocious animalism close
at the surface of his being, lying in jail and expectant of
nothing less than death, was prevailed upon by the agents of
the Iron Heel to throw the bomb in the House of
Representatives. In his confession he states explicitly
that he was informed that the bomb was to be a feeble thing
and that no lives would be lost. This is directly in line
with the fact that the bomb was lightly charged, and that
its explosion at Everhard's feet was not deadly.

Pervaise was smuggled into one of the galleries ostensibly
closed for repairs. He was to select the moment for the
throwing of the bomb, and he naively confesses that in his
interest in Everhard's tirade and the general commotion
raised thereby, he nearly forgot his mission.

Not only was he released from prison in reward for his deed,
but he was granted an income for life. This he did not long
enjoy. In 1914 A.D., in September, he was stricken with
rheumatism of the heart and lived for three days. It was
then that he sent for the Catholic p