and served for seven years; on leaving the army, he became a porter, and
within a few months was guilty of a highway robbery, and sentenced to the
galleys for life, then to five years' hard labour for theft, and again to
seven years at the galleys for an attempt to escape, though how the last
punishment could be super-added to the first, is a fact I cannot hope to
explain. Of Avanzi nothing is mentioned, except that he was an elderly
man condemned to a lengthened term of imprisonment for heavy crimes.
Prisoners, it seems, condemned for long periods, are not sent out of
doors to labour at the public works, but are employed within the prison.
Both Simonetti and Avanzi were set to work in the canvas factory, and
according to a system adopted in many foreign gaols, they received a
certain amount of pay for their labour. An agreement had been made
between the pair, that one should twist and the other spin the hemp; and
the price paid for their joint work was to be divided between them in
certain proportions. About a fortnight before the murder this sort of
partnership was dissolved at the proposal of Simonetti, and some days
after Avanzi made a claim on his late partner for the price of two pounds
of hemp not accounted for. There seems to have been no particular
dispute about this, but on the morning of the murder, Simonetti was
summoned before the overseer of the factory, on the ground of his refusal
to pay the sum claimed by Avanzi of fifteen baiocchi, or seven pence
halfpenny. Simonetti did not deny that Avanzi had some claim upon him,
but disputed the amount. At last, the overseer proposed, as an amicable
compromise, that Simonetti should pay down seven baiocchi as a settlement
in full, sooner than have a formal investigation. Both parties adopted
the suggestion readily, and returned to their work apparently satisfied.
An hour and a half after, while Avanzi was sitting at his frame, with his
face to the wall, Simonetti entered the room with an axe he had picked up
in the carpenter's store, and walking deliberately up to Avanzi, struck
him with the axe across the neck, as he was stooping down. Almost