Proportion between Crime and Punishment. II. Recapi different sorts, which the offender ma ON PUNISI 1. The number of delinquents, 60. rom2. The great value of the services of some one delinquent, 60. 3. The displeasure of the people, 60. 4. The displeasure of foreign powers, 61. 60. 21. MR. ROSCOE. DURING the war of Urbino, an alarming conspiracy was discovered at Rome, the object of which was to destroy the pope by poison and if the name of religion had not been sufficiently prostituted, the Christian world might have shuddered to hear, that the authors of this crime were found among the members of the sacred college. The chief instigator of this attempt was the Cardinal Alfonso Petrucci, the brother of Borghese Petrucci, who had lately been deprived of his authority in Siena, and expelled from that place by the interference of the pope. This total subversion of the dignity and fortunes of his family, which had been accompanied with the confiscation of his own hereditary revenues, sunk deep into the mind of the cardinal. He considered the conduct of the pope, in this transaction, as in itself highly oppressive and unjust: but when he compared it with the services rendered by his father, Pandolfo, to the family of the Medici, as well as their restoration to Florence, as on other important occasions, and recollected the very active part which he had himself taken, with the rest of the younger cardinals, in raising the pope to his high dignity, his resentment arose to such a degree. as could not be restrained, either by the sense of guilt, or the fear of punishment. In the first paroxysms of his anger he determined to assassinate the pope with his own hand; but from this he was deterred by the difficulty of effecting his purpose, rather than by the horror of such a crime, or the scandal that must have arisen to the church from the murder of a pope by the hands of a cardinal. Changing, therefore, his means, but not his object, hè resolved to destroy the pope by poison; for which purpose he B engaged, as the partner of his guilt, Battista da Vercelli, a celebrated practitioner of surgery at Rome. The manner in which this was to be accomplished was agreed upon. During the absence of the surgeon, who usually attended the pope on account of a dangerous and painful complaint with which he had been long afflicted, Battista was introduced to him as a person of superior skill; and if Leo had not by a fortunate delicacy, and contrary to the entreaties of his attendants, refused to discover his complaints to a stranger, it was intended to have mingled the ingredients of poison in the medicaments to be applied. The impatience of Petrucci could not, however, brook delay, but frequently and involuntarily burst forth in complaints against the ingratitude of the pontiff, and in expressions of enmity and revenge. This conduct soon attracted notice; and Petrucci being aware of the danger he had incurred by his imprudence, thought it expedient for a short time to retire from Rome. He did not, however, relinquish his project, which he had committed to his secretary, Antonio Nino, who was to accelerate its execution in his absence, and with whom he maintained a frequent interchange of letters. Some of these being intercepted sufficiently disclosed the criminal nature of the correspondence, and Leo, under the pretext of consulting with Petrucci on the arrangement of his family-concerns, required his presence in Rome. Conscious of his guilt, Petrucci manifested some reluctance in complying with this request; but Leo removed his apprehensions, by granting him a safe-conduct, at the same time undertaking, by his solemn promise to the Spanish embassador, not to violate his own act. Confiding in assurances so solemnly sanctioned, Petrucci instantly repaired to Rome. On his arrival, he was introduced, in company with the Cardinal Bandinello de' Sauli, into the chamber of the pope, where they were both secured by the guards, and committed prisoners to the castle of St. Angelo. Against these proceedings the Spanish embassador loudly remonstrated, asserting, that as he had pledged his faith for the safety of Petrucci, |