current, nobody having noticed the absence of the true ring of the
genuine metal.

III. The books of the Annals must not merely be assumed to be
forgeries; they must be proved to be so; for, if forgeries, they
cannot be as invulnerable as walls of adamant. It is nothing that
nobody has suspected they were forged;--nothing that the editors
and commentators, who, for the most part possessed of remarkable
perspicacity and discernment, have applied their minds to minute
revision and close examination of these books, have, after such
diligent attention never considered them to be spurious, but
belonging to the domain of true history;--nothing that they have
stood for close on four hundred years unchallenged, deceiving the
wisest and the most learned as well as the best and the most
experienced in matters of this description. The cause is obvious:
the forger fabricated with the decided determination of defying
detection. He did not rely upon his own sagacity alone: he called
in the assistance of two of his cleverest friends: three of the
astutest men in the most enlightened portion then of Europe,--
Italy,--sat in conclave over the matter for nearly three years,
deliberating in every possible way how to avoid suspicious
management and faulty performance: consequently, the forgery is
anything but plain and palpable; nay, it is wonderfully obscure
and monstrously difficult: nevertheless, like all forged
documents, it is bungled--ay, in spite of the pains taken to keep
free from bad and blundering work, it is, occasionally (as will be
seen in the present book, from this point until the close),
clumsily, awkwardly, grossly, ridiculously bungled.

In the last generation there was a famous trial for forgery in