adds that they bribed an apostate priest to consecrate at the altar a sacramental wafer, which he administered not until each had shed upon it a drop of his blood,--a blasphemous rite intended to seal their mutual vows of fidelity and secrecy; also that they used to rehearse their fury, and practise their swordsmanship, against a wooden puppet, decked out in gold brocade, and kept for the purpose in one of their houses. Among the solemn functions of Christmas week was that of St. Stephen, performed in the picturesque old fane dedicated to the protomartyr, where it was usual for the court to attend; the Duke on this occasion accidentally left behind a cuirass, that defence of despots, which he was wont to wear, and thus unconsciously facilitated the execution of a concerted project. It was customary, in allusion to the expiring year, to fire a light mass of carded flax suspended in the church, whilst a warning voice "Exclaimed, 'Thus human glory vanishes; Unhappy he who hazards there his hopes!'" [Footnote 183: We need not quote the many authorities, but in MURATORI, _Script._, XXIII., pp. 268 and 777, will be found the Duke's good and evil qualities fairly balanced, and frightful details of the brutal licentiousness which he made his pastime.] As the sovereign raised his eyes to this touching emblem of transient and fragile existence, he was done to instant death by the poignards of the three conspirators.[*184] The moral offences imputed to the wretched man thus miserably summoned to his account have been collected by Sismondi, the consistent impugner of princes.[185] Sanzi, who generally leans to them, has thus painted them in colours less loathsome:-- "A man he was remarkable for worth, Though charged with faults not few, which in his state Were freely challenged. Happy years of youth, Though pregnant with the germs of age mature, And preluding too oft its perils grave! Here must my tongue this prince exalt, as one Who even-handed justice dealt to all, Subject or stranger, noble or obscure; Nor willed that any, founding on his wealth Or station, should the meanest pauper vex. Yet is he censured as one pitiless, And prone to undue passion: trite reproach Of prosperous despots!"