the upper court of the Supreme Tribunal, which appeal comes off after
four months' delay, on the 9th of September, 1859. The only ground of
appeal brought forward is one which, according to our notions of law,
should have been brought forward from the first, namely, that the guilt
of Volpi is not adequately proved by the unsupported statement of his
accomplice Starna, and "that the evidence which corroborates this
statement, only constitutes an _a priori_ probability of his guilt." The
court, however, dismisses this plea at once, on the ground that it is not
competent to take cognizance of an argument based on the abstract merits
of the case, and therefore confirms the verdict.

On the 25th of November the sentence is submitted to, and approved by,
the Pope. On the 3rd of January, 1860, orders are issued from Rome for
the execution to take place. On the 17th the authorities of Viterbo
notify to the prisoner that his last appeal has been dismissed, and "call
on the military to lend their support to the execution of the sentence,"
and on the following day, two years and eight months after his arrest,
Volpi is executed for the murder of Ugolini on the Piazza della Rocca at
Viterbo. On that day, too, appears the first report of his crime and
trial.



CHAPTER V.--continued. THE "AVANZI" MURDER.


In July, 1859, there were in the Bagnio of Civita Vecchia two galley
slaves, Antonio Simonetti and Domenico Avanzi. Simonetti was a man of
thirty, whose life, short as it was, seemed to have been one long career
of crime. He had enlisted at an early age in the Pontifical dragoons,