respondent arrived too late;
that the Pope thought it inexpedient to postpone the execution, or to
accept the plea of youth urged in favour of the four accomplices; and
that they all died that day. It declares that the Count suffered in an
exemplary manner, amidst the commiseration and respect of all Rome, and
that the honour of his house will lose nothing through the catastrophe.

The supplement is conceived in a very different spirit. The writer
laughs at their "pleas" and "proofs," coming, like Pisan help, when the
man is already dead--"not that twenty such vindications would have done
any good--

"When Somebody's thick head-piece once was bent
On seeing Guido's drop into the bag." (vol. x. p. 256.)

Well, people enjoyed the show, but saw through it all the same; and
meanwhile his (the writer's) superb defence goes for nothing; and though
argument is solid and subsists

"While obstinacy and ineptitude
Accompany the owner to his tomb;" (vol. x. p. 256.)

his hands and his pockets are empty. Ah well! little Cino will gain by
it in the long run. He had been promised that if papa couldn't save the
Count's head, he should go and see it chopped off: and when a patroness
of his joked the child on his defeat, and on Bottini's ruling the roast,
the clever rogue retorted that papa knew better than to baulk the Pope
of his grudge, and could have argued Bottini's nose off if he had
chosen. Doesn't the fop see that he (de Archangelis) can drive right and
left horses with one hand? The Gomez case shall make it up to him."

The two other letters are in the same strain as the first. Both are
written on the day of the execution. Both announce it in a condoling
manner. Both allude to the justifications which arrived too late: and in
one or both, the criminal is spoken of as "poor" Signor Guido. Mr.
Browning has preferred, however, representing the other side; and the
next which he gives is, like Don Hyacinth's supplement, only such as
might have been written. It is supposed to be from Pompilia's advocate
Bottinius (or Bottini), and is in keeping with the spirit of his
defence. He is clearly jealous of not having had a worse case to plead.
"He has won," he says. "How could he do otherwise? with the plain truth
on his side, and the Pope ready to steady it on his legs again if he let
it drop asleep. Arcangeli may crow over him, as it is, for having been
kept by him a month at bay--though even this much