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ACCOMPANIMENT. their wonderful iiolyphonic aocompaniments. Many of these old seoies have hecn woiked out by skilled musicians, who have lilled out the missing parts and arranged the accompaniment for the modern orchestra. Among tlie scores to which '"additional accomiiaiiimcnls" have been written arc those of llaiidcl's Messiah, by Mozart; Isriul in E<jij]il, by Mendelssohn; and the great edition of liach's works, by Franz. Consult Apthorp, Musicians and Music Lovers I New VorU, ISIill. ACCOM'PLICE (through confvision with ttccomiilish, for earlier complice, companion, es- jiecially in crime, from T.at. complex, closely con- nected, ccmfcderate). One whose participation in a crime renders him liable to punishment, either as a principal or as an accessory. Hence, a person who acts only the part of a detective is not an accomplice, although he may pretend to be the criminal's confederate, for his act, not being done with criminal intent, is not punish- able. The term is most frequently used in cases where one of several criminals has turned state's evidence. As his testimony against his fellows is apt to be given in the hope of securing im- munity for himself, the court usually charges the jury that it is open to suspicion, and many modern statutes declare that a conviction can- not be had iii)on the testimony of an accomplice, unless he be corroborated by such other evidence as tends to connect the defendant with the com- mission of the crime. Consult the authorities mentioned under the title Criminal Law; also Wharton, Criminal Law (Philadelphia, 1S06). ACCORAMBONI, Ak'ko-rftmbf/ne, Vittobia (M.-iS."!). All Italian woman remarkable for her beauty and her tragic history. She was sought in marriage by Paolo Giordano Orsini. Duke of Bracciano, who was supposed to have murdered his wife, Isabella de' Medici, but her father gave her to Francesco Peretti, nephew of Cardinal Montalto, afterward Pope Sixtus V. The husband was assassinated in 1581, and the vidow lied from her father-in-law's house to that of the Duke of Bracciano, the supposed mur- derer. Pope Gregory XIII. opposed her mar- riage to the duke so far as to keep her a prisoner in the castle of Sant' Angelo nearly a year, but that did not prevent their union. Not long afterward the duke died, leaving nearly the whole <jf his fortune to the widow. This .so incensed Ludovico Orsini, a relative, that he caused the widow to be nnirdered in her home in Padua, December 22, 1585. Her history has been made the subject of novels and plays, among others, of Webster's tragedy, The White Devil. Consult: Gnoli, 1 ittoria Aecoramhoni I Florence, 1870). ACCORD' AND SATISFACTION. In the law of contracts, a mutual agreement entered into by the parties to a contract by which one party agrees to discharge the other from his obligation under the contract, in return for the other party's promise to do or give something. The satisfaction is the performance of the prom- ise to do or give something. The agreement for the discharge of the contract may be unilat- eral, that is, the promise is given on the one side in return for an act on the part of the promisee, in which case the accord and satisfac- tion come into e.xistenc* simultaneously. At common law it was early held that an accord with satisfaction was a good defense to an action founded upon simple contract, but that a mutual agreement to discharge a pre-existing contract, being mere promise given for promise, was an accord only and not a valid defense at law. This was either because nnitual pronxises, not being gocKl consideration for each other, were not regarded as binding, or because the law woubl not enforce an agreement which merely substituted one cause of action for another, or for both reasons. The first, owing to the changed conception of consideration, has ceased to exist, and the second is now generally disre- garded, most jurisdiitions holding that a mere accord without satisfaction is a valid discharge of a simple contract, though the decided cases are not altogether harmonious on this point. Agreements never to sue on the earlier contract were regarded as a good accord or accord and satisfaction and a valid defense, but agreements not to sue for a limited time were not admitted as a defense at common law ; but equity might enforce them by enjoining action on the earlier contract. In the case of contracts under seal, before breach, accord and accord and satisfaction were not admitted as valid defenses at common law, but after breach of the obligation under seal, it was regarded as a mere right of action for damages, of no higher nature than a simple contract and subject to the same defenses. Equity under proper conditions would enforce the accord even when entered into before breach of the con- tract under seal by enjoining all action upon the latter; and in most jurisdictions where equitable defenses may be pleaded at law, accord or accord and satisfaction may now be set up as a defense to an action on the instrument under seal. An accord must always be an agreement founded on good consideration. Thus, a mere agreement founded upon a promise to do or give something which the promisee was already bound to do (for example, an agreement to pay a lesser sum in lieu of a debt for a greater) is not valid as an accord. An apparent exception to this rule exists in cases where the precise amount or character of the obligation under the earlier contract was uncertain, in which case an accord by way of a compromise agreement is regarded as made upon valid consideration. A real excep- tion to the rule was allowed in case of compro- mise agreements in which a debtor agreed to pay a .smaller sum in lieu of a greater to his creditors in return for their promise to release him from his debts tt> them. In a number of the Stales, notably New York, a written receipt given by the creditor to a debtor without consid- eration and with intent to release the debts is allowed to be a valid discharge of the debts. This is anomalous. See the authorities referred to under Contuact. ACCOR'DION (Fr. accorder, to accord, be in harmony). A musical instrument which produces its tones by the vibration of metallic tongues of various sizes, while wind is supplied by the action of a hand bellows. Two sets of tongues make it possible to produce the same tones either by pressing or pulling the bellows. It was invented by Damian of Vienna in 182!). See CoNCEKTiNA and Hak.monii'M.

ACCOUNT' (Lat. ad, to -f computare, to sum up, reckon, compute). In its broadest sense, a catalogue of items, whether of debts or credits, arising out of contracts, as in the case of merchants; or a fiduciary relation, as in the case of principal and agent; or a duty imposed by