off along a bye-road. Thereupon Volpi proposed that they should follow
the old man and rob him, adding, "he has got a whole lot of coppers."
Starna, according to his own story, refused to have anything to do with
the matter; on which Volpi said, in that case he should do it alone, and
asked Starna to go and fetch the tool he wanted, and bring it to him
where they were standing. Starna then left Volpi running across the
fields to overtake the tinker, and went home to find the tool. In a very
short time afterwards, as he was coming back to the appointed meeting-
place, he met Volpi in a great state of agitation, who told him that the
job was finished, and Ugolini's throat cut, but that only 20 pauls' worth
of copper money, about eight shillings, were found upon him. Starna
admitted that he then took eight pauls as his own share in the booty, and
told Volpi to wash off some spots of blood visible on his sleeve. He
also added, that later on the same day he met Volpi again, and then
expressed his alarm at what had happened; on which he received the
answer, "If you had been with me, you would not be alive now."

One can hardly conceive a more suspicious story, or one more clearly
concocted to give the best colour to the witness's own conduct, at the
expense of his fellow-prisoner. No evidence whatever appears to have
been brought in support of this confession. The court, notwithstanding,
decides that the truth of this statement is fully established by internal
and external testimony, and therefore declares that the alleged crimes
are clearly proved against both the prisoners. "Considering,"
nevertheless, "that though Starna was an accomplice in the crime, from
his having assisted Volpi, and from having, by his own confession, shared
in the booty, yet that his guilt was less, both in the conception and in
the perpetration of the crime, there being no proof that he had taken any
active part in the murder of Ugolini," therefore, "in the most holy name
of God," the court sentences Volpi to public execution, and Starna to