Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 5.djvu/345

Rh years, and to have tormented them with an incomparable ingenuity and ferocity. Beatrice at last found means to communicate with Monsignor Guerra, and it was agreed that, for the sum of a thousand piastres, one-third to be paid by the cardinal and the rest by Beatrice and Lucrezia, Olimpio and Marzio should enter the castle and kill Francesco in his bed. On September 9, 1588, accordingly, a strong opiate having been dexterously administered to the tyrant, the assassins were introduced into his chamber by Beatrice herself. Here they were overtaken with remorse ; the spectacle of the old man sleeping was too much for them ; and they retreated without accomplishing their intent. Beatrice, however, whose magnificent personality had risen to the occasion, received them with such indigna tion, that they returned and slew the sleeper, much as Jael had slain Sisera, by driving a long nail through the eye into the brain, making assurance doubly sure by driving another through the throat. When this was done Beatrice presented them with a purse of money, and clothed Marzio in a mantle laced with gold, which had belonged to her father. She and Lucrezia then withdrew the nails from the corpse, which they folded in a sheet, and dragged through several rooms to a gallery looking into an unused garden, whence they Hung it into the branches of a great elder tree that grew thereby. This gallery was used for such a purpose as would lend reality to the story they intended to tell, of Cenci s leaving his bed to repair thither, and of his slipping and falling accidentally into the branches below. Everything occurred as Beatrice and her mother had foreseen. The alarm was great, but Francesco s death was accounted for naturally enough ; his remains received an honourable burial, and the two women returned to Home, and lived tranquilly there for several months. Suspicion, however, had been excited in Naples by the circumstances of the event, and a magistrate was sent to Petrella, who arrested all the people employed about the castle. Among them was a washerwoman to whom Beatrice had given the soiled linen from Cenci s bed, with a story accounting iu quite a natural way for the presence of so much blood. The woman, interrogated as to the credibility of the story, threw doubts upon it, basing her opinion on the unusual brightness of colour of the marks. Details of the interrogatory were sent to Rome, but no notice was taken, and Lucrezia and her children remained undisturbed. Meanwhile, however, Monsignor Guerra, as soon as he was informed of what was passing at Naples, had sent out emissaries charged with the murder of Francesco Cenci s assassins. Olimpio alone had been dispatched. Marzio, arrested by the Neapolitan Government several months after the murder, was taken to Naples; he confessed everything. On information being conveyed to Rome, Lucrezia and her three step-children, Giacomo, Bernardo, and Beatrice Cenci, were arrested. Lucrezia, Giacomo, and Bernardo were taken to the Corte Savella prison, while Beatrice was confined to the Cenci Palace, and guarded strictly by a troop of sbirri. Marzio, meanwhile, was brought from Naples, and confronted in the Corte Savella with Lucrezia and her daughter The majesty and strength of Beatrice in this interview were such that the old vassal withdrew his confession, and chose rather to expire under torture than to incriminate his mistresses further. In the absence of any other proof, the whole of the Cenci family were relegated to Sant Angelo, where they remained for several months. At the end of that time Olimpio s assassin was arrested, and confessed as much as he knew. Monsignor Guerra fled from Rome, disguised as a charcoal- burner, and Lucrezia and her children were taken back again to the Corte Savella. Put to the torture, Giacomo and Bernardo at once con fessed the crime and their share in it. Lucrezia, too, who was of a luxurious habit of body, was not able to enduro the torture of the cord, and acknowledged her complicity also. But Beatrice was not made of such penetrable stuff. The cord made no impression on her whatever, and her genius and force of will so confounded Moscati, the judge charged with her interrogatory, that he made her the subject of a special report to the Pope. The examination was committed to a second of sterner reputa tion, and Beatrice was questioned by suspension by the hair. While in this posture her brothers and Lucrezia were introduced into the apartment. All of them urged her to confess. She reproached them with their little care for the honour of the family, but at last consented. She then answered the judge s questions, denying the false and explaining the true. On the release of Beatrice from the torture and the examination, the four dined and spent the evening cheerfully together. Next day the two brothers were taken to the Tor di Nono, the women remaining in the Corte Savella ; the Pope, having read the papers, had sentenced them to immediate death. Immense efforts were made to obtain a commutation of the sentence, but a respite of twenty-five days was all that could be got. On the twenty-fifth day a body of advocates, among whom was the celebrated jurist Farinacci, presented themselves before Clement, to plead the cause of the accused ; the Pope, however, refused to listen to them, and Farinacci alone was allowed to speak. They left their briefs, which Clement spent the night in read ing. The next day all four prisoners were ordered to be confined au secret, and great hopes were entertained of pardon. But a scandalous case of matricide intervened ; the assassin fled, and the Cenci were immolated in his stead, Farinacci succeeding after great efforts in saving the life of Bernardo, the youngest boy. On the 11th of September 1599, the four prisoners were conveyed to the scaffold. Lucrezia and Beatrice were on foot ; Giacomo was drawn in a cart, and was subjected the whole way to the torture of the pincers, which he bore vith great fortitude. Bernardo, who was young and long haired, was extremely agitated, and was several times mis taken for Beatrice, who indeed was far from sharing her brother s weakness. The heat was intense, the excitement unparalleled, the crowd enormous ; several deaths from fever and sunstroke are said to have occurred during the day. Lucrezia and Beatrice were beheaded, and were afterwards buried, the one in the church of San Giorgio, the other in that of San Pietro in Montario. Giacomo was mazzolato killed with a mace. Bernardo, who fainted several times, was removed to a convent, &quot; Oriental precautions &quot; being taken, it is said, to prevent his disturbing the new owners in their possession of the confiscated estates of his house. Part of these estates, conveyed to a cardinal nephew of Clement, became the Villa Barberini. Therein are still preserved the portraits of Lucrezia Petroni and of Beatrice Cenci, the latter of which is said to be by Guido Reui, Shelley s fine tragedy is well known ; the poet has dealt freely with much of his material, but the result is of unapproachable excellence. See also the Chroniques ct Nouvelles of H. Beyle, whose account of the Cenci forms a remarkable page in a remarkable book.  CENEDA, a district in the province of Treviso, Northern Italy, so called from the city of the same name. Its popu lation has varied as follows : 1807, 22,718; 1844. 18,986; 1855, 37,510; 18G2, 38,443. It is a highly picturesque region at the foot of the Alps, fertile in corn and wine, the white kind of which has considerable local celebrity. The olives which formerly abounded have almost disappeared. There are saline springs near the 