dy to conduct the reconciliation upon
honorable terms, having already several affairs of like import in his
charge. To this proposal Sarpi replied that the cause he had defended
was a just one, that he had done nothing to offend his Holiness, and
that all plots against his liberty or life he left within the hands of
God. To these words he significantly added that, even in the Pope's
grasp, a man was always 'master over his own life'--a sentence which
seems to indicate suicide as the last resort of self-defense. In
September of the same year the Venetian ambassador at Rome received
private information regarding some mysterious design against a person or
persons unknown, at Venice, in which the Papal Court was implicated, and
which was speedily to take effect.[144] On October 5 Sarpi was returning
about 5 o'clock in the afternoon to his convent at S. Fosca, when he was
attacked upon a bridge by five ruffians. It so happened that on this
occasion he had no attendance but his servant Fra Marino; Fra Fulgenzio
and a man of courage who usually accompanied him, having taken another
route home. The assassins were armed with harquebusses, pistols and
poniards. One of them went straight at Sarpi, while the others stood on
guard and held down Fra Marino. Fifteen blows in all were aimed at
Sarpi, three of which struck him in the neck and face. The stiletto
remained firmly embedded in his cheekbone between the right ear and
nose. He fell to the ground senseless; and a cry being raised by some
women who had witnessed the outrage from a window, the assassins made
off, leaving their victim for dead. It was noticed that they took
refuge in the palace of the Papal Nuncio, whence they escaped that same
evening to the Lido _en route_ for the States of the Church. An old
Venetian nobleman of the highest birth, Alessandro Malipiero, who bore a
singular affection for the champion of his country's liberty, was
walking a short way in front of Sarpi beyond the bridge upon which the
assault was perpetrated. He rushed to his friend's aid, dragged out the
dagger from his face, and bore him to the convent. There Sarpi lay for
many weeks in danger, suffering as much, it seems, from his physicians
as from the wounds. Not satisfied with the attendance of his own
surgeon, Alvise Ragoza, the Venetians insisted on sending all the
eminent doctors of the city and of Padua to his bedside. The illustrious
Acquapendente formed one of this miscellaneous _cortege_