"If I can discover the forger," he said at the end of his letter, "I will make a striking example of him." It was quite clear that Agostini did not write the threatening letter to the mayor.

The della Rebbia accused the Barricini of it and _vice versa_.

Both parties broke into open threats, and the authorities did not know where to find the culprit.
In the midst of all this Colonel Ghilfuccio was murdered.

Here are the facts, as they were elicited at the official inquiry.

On the 2d of August, 18--, toward nightfall, a woman named Maddalena Pietri, who was carrying corn to Pietranera, heard two shots fired, very close together, the reports, as it seemed to her, coming from the deep lane leading to the village, about a hundred and fifty paces from the spot on which she stood.