THE VENERABLE DON BOSCO
knife by an apparent madman, but escaped almost by miracle. A friend of Don Bosco asked the assassin what motive had urged him to attempt the life of so good a man.
"I had none at all," he answered coolly, "except the eighty francs paid me to feign madness and stab him."
"Eighty francs to kill a man?" echoed Don Bosco's friend. "Well, if I give you one hundred and sixty not to injure him?"
"Just double," said the bandit; "then I promise to guard him." And he kept his word.
Don Bosco was called one night to hear the confession of a dying woman. Margaret sent four pupils armed with sticks to escort him. No sooner was Don Bosco within the room of the supposed patient than a blow from a cudgel was dealt him on the shoulders; but his faithful boys, alert on the watch, rushed to his aid and rescued him from the would-be murderers. A touching story is told of one of Don Bosco's most devoted disciples, afterward Monsieur Buzzetti, Inspector of the School of Arts and Sciences, that when a boy, he imperilled his life for his kind benefactor, receiving into his right hand the ball levelled at his master; part of the thumb and forefinger was torn away; and but for this Buzzetti would have been a priest.
36
