La veille du jour où le général Fabio Conti reçut le pli officiel du fiscal Rassi, il apprit que le commis Barbone avait été roué de coups en rentrant un peu tard à la citadelle ; il en conclut qu’il n’était plus question en certain lieu de se défaire de Fabrice ; et, par un trait de prudence qui sauva Rassi des suites immédiates de sa folie, il ne parla point au prince, à la première audience qu’il en obtint, de la copie officielle de la sentence du prisonnier à lui transmise.
On the day before that on which General Fabio Conti received the official document from the Fiscal Rassi, he learned that the clerk Barbone had been beaten black and blue on returning rather late to the citadel; he concluded from this that there was no longer any question, in a certain quarter, of getting rid of Fabrizio; and, in a moment of prudence which saved Rassi from the immediate consequences of his folly, he said nothing to the Prince, at the next audience which he obtained of him, of the official copy of Fabrizio's sentence which had been transmitted to him.