ut Bebo, left
him in the arms of a Venetian nobleman, who held him back from jumping
into the canal.'

Who this Venetian nobleman, found unexpectedly upon the scene, was, does
not appear. Nor, what is still more curious, do we hear anything of that
Martelli, the bravo, 'who kept his sword for the defense of Lorenzino's
person.' The one had arrived accidentally, it seems. The other must have
been a coward and escaped from the scuffle.

'When I turned,' proceeds Bibboni, 'I found Lorenzino on his knees. He
raised himself, and I in anger, gave him a great cut across the head,
which split it in two pieces, and laid him at my feet, and he never
rose again.'

Bebo, meanwhile, had made off from the scene of action. And Bibboni,
taking to his heels, came up with him in the little square of San
Marcello. They now ran for their lives till they reached the traghetto
di San Spirito, where they threw their poignards into the water,
remembering that no man might carry these in Venice under penalty of the
galleys. Bibboni's white hose were drenched with blood. He therefore
agreed to separate from Bebo, having named a rendezvous. Left alone, his
ill luck brought him face to face with twenty constables (_sbirri_). 'In
a moment I conceived that they knew everything, and were come to capture
me, and of a truth I saw that it was over with me. As swiftly as I could
I quickened pace and got into a church, near to which was the house of a
Compagnia, and the one opened into the other, and knelt down and prayed
commending myself with fervor to God for my deliverance and safety. Yet
while I prayed, I kept my eyes well opened and saw the whole band pass
the church, except one man who entered, and I strained my sight so that
I seemed to see behind as well as in front, and then it was I longed for
my poignard, for I should not have heeded being in a church.' But the
constable, it soon appeared, was not looking for Bibboni. So he gathered
up his courage, and ran for the Church of San Spirito, where the Padre
Andrea Volterrano was preaching to a great congregation. He hoped to go
in by one door and out by the other, but the crowd prevented him, and he
had to turn back and face the _sbirri_. One of them followed him, having
probably caught sight of the blood upon his hose. Then Bibboni resolved
to have done with the fellow, and rushed at him, and flung him down with
his head upon the pavement, and ran like mad, and came at last, all out
of breath t