And their tale, of course, was that Gambara, being the lover of Fifanti's
wife, had dispatched the doctor on a trumped-up mission, and had gone to
visit her by night. But that the suspicious Fifanti lying near by in wait,
and having seen the Cardinal enter, followed him soon after and attacked
him, whereupon the Lord Gambara had slain him. And then that wily,
fiendish prelate had sought to impose the blame upon the young Lord of
Mondolfo, who was a student in the pedant's house, and he had caused the
young man's arrest. But this the Piacentini would not endure. They had
risen, and threatened the Governor's life; and he was fled to Rome or
Parma, whilst the authorities to avoid a scandal had connived at the escape
of Messer d'Anguissola, who was also gone, no man knew whither.
The news had travelled speedily into that mountain fastness, it seemed.
But it had been garbled at its source. The Piacentini conceived that they
held some evidence of what they believed--the evidence of the lad whom
Fifanti had left to spy and who had borne him the tale that the Cardinal
was within. This evidence they accounted well-confirmed by the Legate's
flight.
Thus is history written. Not a doubt but that some industrious scribe in
Piacenza with a grudge against Gambara, would set down what was the talk of
the town; and hereafter, it is not to be doubted, the murder of Astorre
Fifanti for the vilest of all motives will be added to the many crimes of
Egidio Gambara, that posterity may execrate his name even beyond its
already rich enough deserts.
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