User blog comment:Suriken88/Ezio's speculated death in Embers/@comment-3183702-20111219103719

You know... poison can actually accelerate/trigger an heart attack.

He was old and sick and probably already on his way out yeah, but just a small bit of poison would probably be enough to die even sooner in that state... There's no 100% way to be sure he wasn't poisoned in my opinion. It's up for debate/theorizing and I think it will always be, unfortunately, even though I know many don't like it that way. Things aren't really clarified, as Gabe says he doesn't seem to have the full story...

Poisoned or not, there's no doubt the guy sitting next to him was a Templar... here's a clearer picture:

We're not making this up. You just have to go frame by frame until you see it (only for a single frame can you see it clearly).

Plus I didn't like the face he makes to Ezio when he's dying, with his smug-smile, raising his left eyebrow... and that ugly scar. To me he sounded really sarcastic when saying "Coraggio, vecchio (Courage, old man)" and "Get some rest, uh?". And "vecchio" sounds derogatory. "Anziano" would be more polite.