The history of the popes, from the close of the middle ages : drawn ...

EXECUTION OF THE CARDINAL. I7I
parino had difficulty iii making the unhappy man understand
that the hour of his death had now irrevocably arrived, and
that only a short time remained to him to go to confession,
and make his final arrangements. With the sorrowful cry :
" I, who have admitted nothing, am to die ! " the Cardinal
at length arose and dressed. The biretta was refused to him,
and thereby he knew that he was deposed from his rank as
" he cried, " O King
Cardinal Deacon. " O ungrateful Pius !
Phihp ! thou hast betrayed me !
" Then a priest, belonging
to a religious order, who had been appointed to hear his con-
fession, entered : it lasted for an hour. After this Carafa
seemed calmer ; he had all the attendants brought in, and
called upon them to witness that he forgave the Pope, the King
of Spain, the Governor, the Procurator Fiscal, and all his
enemies. After he had said the seven penitential psalms, he
courageously offered his neck to the executioner. When the
latter drew the knot, the rope broke ; another was taken,
which also broke, and it was only with the greatest difficulty
that the executioner was able to complete his work.^ The
body of Cardinal Carafa, who was aged only forty-two years,
was then taken to the still unfinished church of S. Maria
Traspontina, near the Castle of St. Angelo.
Gasparino de Melis, with the executioner, hurried away from
the body of Cardinal Carafa to the Tor di Nona. He found
the Duke of Paliano, with the Count d'Alife and Lionardo di
Cardine, in the chapel, where, assisted by a Jesuit, they were
preparing for death. Their Christian resignation, and their
real contrition moved even the Brothers of the Misericordia
who were present, though they were used to such scenes.
The scaffold was erected in the courtyard of the prison, and
while prayers were being said for them, the three guilty men
suffered death. Their bodies were publicly exposed on the
morning of March 6th in the neighbouring square, near the
Ponte Sant Angelo. The decapitated body of the Duke lay
^ The horrible incident gave the humanist, Niccolo Franco,
occasion to write the following epigram :
Extinxit laqueus vix te, Carafa, secundus ;
Xante enim sceleri non satis unus erit.
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