Page:Matteo Bandello - twelve stories (IA cu31924102029083).pdf/350

 mattered little to him what sort of death were his, if only this had been without shame, as it is not the quality of the punishment, but the cause for this, which makes death abominable and ignominious. Virtue, in truth, can invest any sort of death with honour, whereas death, of whatever kind it be, may never avail to put on virtue any stain.

While the peasant bringing Giulio's letter was under arrest at the house of the magistrate, the justices of Antwerp sent a messenger to their colleagues at Aix, to claim the surrender of the perfidious Romagnole, so that severe punishment might be dealt out to him; but the Aix authorities refused to give him up. Nevertheless, not to allow such villainy to go unpunished, they caused Giulio to be seized, who confessed to the murder, and then his arms, thighs, legs, and ribs were broken on the wheel to which he was afterwards bound, dying thus after two days' agony.

In fine, from this tragic tale we may conclude that he who well considers the result of his deeds rarely does ill, while he who gives no thought to this dies, as he has lived, like a very beast of the field.