The Count of Monte Cristo

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"Really?" said Franz.

"Yes, I passed the evening at the Cardinal Rospigliosi's, and there
mention was made of something like a pardon for one of the two men."

"For Andrea Rondolo?" asked Franz.

"No," replied the count, carelessly; "for the other (he glanced at the
tablets as if to recall the name), for Peppino, called Rocca Priori. You
are thus deprived of seeing a man guillotined; but the mazzuola still
remains, which is a very curious punishment when seen for the first
time, and even the second, while the other, as you must know, is very
simple. The mandaia [*] never fails, never trembles, never strikes thirty
times ineffectually, like the soldier who beheaded the Count of Chalais,
and to whose tender mercy Richelieu had doubtless recommended the
sufferer. Ah," added the count, in a contemptuous tone, "do not tell me
of European punishments, they are in the infancy, or rather the old age,