The Poison a Breath of Which Sufficed

In the ancient apothecary's shop At the Golden Lily there lived, under Vladislaus II, an apothecary named Tomáš who is said to have meant, at King Matthias's instigation, to poison the king. He sent a poor squire, Jiří Hluchý of Kutná Hora, to Venice for the poison, and there for two hundred and fifty guilders the man bought a poison so strong that a mere breath of it would kill. But the Venetian government warned the king, and both culprits were seized. Tomáš died under torture, and Hluchý was left to perish in a fearful prison at Karlštejn — or else poisoned himself.