The Old Yellow Book Part 11

_Letter of the Lover._

My adored Signora:

I wish to know whether you can leave Sunday evening, that is, to-morrow evening, for if you do not go away to-morrow evening, G.o.d knows when you shall be able to do so, because of the scarcity of carriages, owing to the fact that on Wednesday the Bishop departs with three carriages. Therefore, if you can go, as soon as you have read this letter of mine, return to the window and throw it to me as a sign that I may reserve a carriage beforehand, which may be secured from some one or other. If I secure the carriage to-morrow, in pa.s.sing along there I will let fall my handkerchief one time only. Then for the rest, to-morrow evening I will wait from eight o'clock in the evening on as long as necessary. And as soon as you see that they are sound asleep, open the door for me, that I may help you make up your bundles and collect the money. Above all, try to put some into all their cups, and do not yourself drink it. And if by ill luck they shall find it out, and shall threaten you with death, open indeed the door, that I may die with you or free you from their hands. And praying G.o.d that he will make this design of ours turn out well, I declare myself as ever.

Your Most Faithful Servant and Lover, MIRTILLO.

It is a very bad sign that the Jealous One seems pacified, and that he has said you were at the window. Because he will wish to find out in that way what you are doing at the window, and for what purpose you are there. For Conti has told me that now he is more jealous than at first, and that if he find out about anything, he will wish to avenge himself by putting us to death. He wishes to do the same to me, and that is what will happen. Here then has come at last the breaking of the chord.

Most Beloved Signora:

I have received your note full of those expressions (and then loving words follow). Be pleased to receive me into your bosom, in which I rest all my affections, etc. Consign to the ashes this note of mine.

_Another letter of Francesca._

My Revered Signor:

Driven by the affection which I feel for you, I am forced to contradict what I sent you yesterday evening in that letter when I said I did not wish to tell you to come here. If you did not tell me then, I tell you now that I would wish you to come here this evening at the same hour as day before yesterday evening. I have indeed thought that towers are not moved by such light blows. But if you do [not?] wish to come here (that there may be no occasion for you to break your promise to some beloved lady or even though it may not be convenient), I do not wish to be the cause. Therefore if you wish to come here, pa.s.s along as soon as you have read this, etc.

No. 8.--_Decree of banishment of the lover._

_Tuesday, September 24, 1697._

Joseph Maria Caponsacchi, of Arezzo, for complicity in flight and running away of Francesca Comparini, and for carnal knowledge of the same, has been banished for three years to Civita Vecchia.

[File-t.i.tle of Pamphlet 8.]

_By the Most Ill.u.s.trious and Most Reverend Lord Governor of the City in Criminal Cases:_

_ROMAN MURDER-CASE._

_For Count Guido Franceschini and his a.s.sociates, Prisoners, against the Fisc._

_New Memorial of the fact and law, together with a summary, by the Honourable Procurator of the Poor._

_At Rome, in the type of the Reverend Apostolic Chamber, 1698._

ROMANA HOMICIDIORUM

[PAMPHLET 8.]

Most Ill.u.s.trious and most Reverend Lord Governor:

The confession of Count Guido and his fellows as to the murder of Francesca, his wife, and of Pietro and Violante Comparini, his father-in-law and mother-in-law, falls far short of supporting the Fisc in demanding the ordinary death penalty. But, rather, it is remarkably in our favour in excluding that penalty. For there is no longer any doubt as to the cause of the murders, namely _causa honoris_. This at first was denied by the Fisc because of the presence of other causes, though these either were insufficient or were indirectly hurtful to the sense of honour. We will go over them hereafter, not "with unwashed hands." For a confession indeed should be received along with all its details, and is not to be divided according to a preconceived purpose. [Citations.]

This cause alone would be ground enough for demanding that he and his fellows be dealt with more mildly, if we bear in mind that _causa honoris_ is quite sufficient for the moderating of this penalty. For we have proved in our other argument that a husband may kill his adulterous wife, even after an interval, without incurring the death penalty, wherever the adultery is really proved, as the Advocate of the Fisc concedes in his response. -- _Solamque suspicionem_.

And in very truth, we have in our other plea adduced a great many decisions of the highest courts, wherefrom it is evident that the penalty has been diminished for husbands who have had their wives killed even by means of an a.s.sa.s.sin; and, on the contrary, no decision favourable to the Fisc is cited. Such an opinion is therefore to be accepted more readily, inasmuch as it is sanctioned by the greater number of authorities. And even although Farinacci and Rainaldi seem to take the other side, yet Farinacci, in his _Questions_, shows himself very much in doubt, as I have shown in my other plea; and in _cons. 141_, he shows that he is very changeable, since in _cons. 66, No. 5_, he has proved the contrary. Therefore, when his attention was called to this changeableness, in excusing himself, he a.s.serted, in the said _cons. 141_, under _No. 16_, that Beatrice, in behalf of whom he had written in _cons. 66_, had been beheaded; as if this kind of rigorous sentence should be followed in practice. And may this distinguished authority pardon me, but he responds inconsistently, having forgotten what he had written in the end of _cons. 66_: that is, that Beatrice was put to death not because she, after an interval, had commanded that one be put to death who was plotting against her honour, but because she did not prove her right to this latter exception, where he says: "So also there was strong hope for the sister Beatrice, if she had proved the excuse she offered, as she did not prove it."

But the Honourable Rainaldi, whose words and writings I venerate, in his _Observationes Criminales_ (_cap. 2_, -- 4, _No. 156_), after he a.s.serts that some remission from the ordinary penalty may be hoped through the benignity of the Prince, does not decide the point by citing Gizzarellus and Giurba, who affirm that in justice the penalty should be decreased. But he goes back to what he had written (_cap. 7 in Rubrica sub No. 60_), where, however, he does not openly examine the point as to murder permitted for honour's sake. Otherwise he would go contrary to the general opinion of authorities, and to many decisions of the highest magistrates, that is to the common practice of the courts. [Citation.] "And this opinion is followed in practice, as I find in the event of such a fact the Neapolitan court has so decided." And concerning this same practice, Matthaeus likewise bears witness. [Citation.]

Yet, as I have said, it would be enough to clear Guido of conviction if only his confession be taken in its entirety without subdivision.

For greater completeness, however, we offer full proofs of the adultery, as brought out in the prosecution for the flight from home.

The Fisc has attempted to attack these proofs lest he might have to lay down his arms; and the Achilles of his pretence is solely a preposterous cross-examination, which was not admitted into the suit for permanent record. It gives the word of a certain baseborn woman, formerly a servant in the home of the Accused, who was severely maltreated by Guido, by the Canon his brother, and by their mother.

All too eagerly she narrates the ill-treatment suffered by Pietro and Violante, and by Francesca their daughter, and his wife, respectively, especially in the matter of their food, on account of which Pietro and Violante preferred to return to Rome.

Yet Guido by a written agreement had bound himself to furnish food to the abovesaid couple. And furthermore it is claimed that the flight of Pompilia also was necessary, because she was being threatened with death; in order that her own base desire of violating her matrimonial fidelity may not be deduced therefrom.

If, however, we have any regard for the truth, the domestic affairs of the Accused were not so pinched, because they were more than enough, not merely for frugal, but even for lavish living. The theft of the moneys committed by Francesca in the act of flight demonstrates this.

(See the prosecution for flight, pages 5, 63, and 92.)

The real and true cause which moved Pietro and his wife to go back to Rome was undoubtedly that the mother of Count Guido could not bear that the aforesaid Comparini should regulate family matters and should at their own pleasure dispose of everything looking toward the government of the home; this with greatest flagrancy and with none the less boldness they desired to do. Furthermore, Pietro took it ill that he was rebuked for leaving the company of the n.o.ble cla.s.s and a.s.sociating in taverns with the commonest persons in town, to the scandal of well-born men. And still more because he was compelled by the Governor of the City, under fear of imprisonment, to restore certain trinkets and gems of his daughter, which he had taken away, as Count Guido testified in his examination (pp. 96 and 97). And this is admirably proved by a letter of the same Governor recently presented by ourselves, which we give in Summary, No. 1.

With these statements the cross-examination of the same Francesca, when arrested in her flight, agrees; in it we nowhere read that she was maltreated, nor that she ever complained of that home of decent poverty. And yet it is very probable that, to put a good face upon her flight, she would have alleged the domestic want and home miseries, if she had ever suffered them.

We do not deny that disputes immediately arose between Francesca and her husband, and possibly he threatened her with death. But this was for another reason, namely that she should quit the illicit amours she had begun at the suggestion of her parents, and that she should live with evident chast.i.ty as is to be read expressly in her deposition (our Summary, No. 2, letter A).

It is verified from the fact that Francesca herself, in a letter written to Abate Franceschini, ingenuously confesses (Summary of the Fisc, No. 4, and our Summary, No. 3) that her parents indeed were sowing strife between the couple, and were urging her to have recourse to the Bishop under the false pretence of ill-treatment; and day and night they kept instigating her to poison her husband, her brother, and mother-in-law, to burn the house, and what is still more awful, to win a lover and return to Rome in his company. Nor did she fail to obey them in several of these matters.

And in another letter written to the same Abate, and shown by us, and given in our Summary, No. 4, we read: "Not now having those here who urge me to evil."

Of no counter-effect is the response that the single characters of the said first letter had been previously marked out by Guido, and were afterward traced with a pen by herself, as she a.s.serts in our Summary, No. 2, letter K. For proof of this statement she can bring no other evidence than that she does not know how to write. Summary, No. 2, letters B, H, and K.

In this, furthermore, she stands most clearly convicted of falsehood by her signature, which was recognised by herself at the command of the court while she was in prison, as we find in the prosecution for flight (p. 39). She also stands convicted of falsehood by the signature of her marriage agreement, concerning the truth of which it would be ill to doubt, both because there is along with it the signature of one of the Lord Cardinals, and because her handwriting was recognised by herself who had written it, at the demand of the notary, as is to be seen in the copy filed in the prosecution for flight, p. 132. And, furthermore, she is convicted by the priest with whom she fled, who a.s.serts that more than once at night he has received letters which were either thrown out of the window by her or were sent by a servant; we give his deposition in our Summary, No. 5, letters A, B, C, and D. This is verified by the Fiscal witness (p.

108), where we read: "And she threw down a note, as I saw very clearly, and the Canon picked it up, and went away." There are, besides, the letters and sheets of paper filled with mutual love, found in the prison at Castelnuovo, where they themselves were overtaken. But it is utterly impossible that the characters of these were also marked by her husband, nor is it told by whom they were written; accordingly it is to be presumed that they were devised by herself, lest she might betray their forbidden love-intrigues, which they would have to hide with the greatest care. And I pray that the abovesaid letter be submitted to our eyes, and it will be clearly seen whether the characters were formed by one not knowing how to write, but forming them in ink in imitation of certain signs, or rather by the expert hand of the woman herself.

In the first place, the truth of the said letter of which we are speaking, we may gather from the letter of the Governor of Arezzo, in our Summary, No. 1, where we find: "Of much greater scandal were the flights and pet.i.tions made by the said wife, their daughter, to Monsignor the Bishop. These were made for no other reason than that neither she nor her parents wished to stay any longer in Arezzo, but desired to return to Rome. When she had been rebuked by that most prudent Prelate, he always sent her home in his carriage."

And this is likewise expressly deducible from another letter of the most reverend Bishop, which is given in the Summary, No. 6, where we read: "The more she made outcry, that much the more she had been urged thereto by the instigation of her mother." And after a few words: "I have some knowledge of this, because Senator Marzi-Medici, who presides over the secular government of this city for our Most Serene Grand Duke, has told me all."

It is verified still further by another letter of Signor Bartolommeo Albergotti, produced by the other side, which is given in the Summary of that side, No. 2, at the end. But the letter is not given in its entirety, for, where it speaks of the Secretary of the Bishop urging Count Guido and his mother, we should read there: "Not to maltreat the Signora for the affront offered him. After disputes enough of this kind, he took the Signora back home. And she declared that she was absolutely unwilling to live with Signora Beatrice and with the Canon Girolamo, her brother-in-law." And after a few other matters: "I pray yourself and Signora Violante to be willing to offer a remedy by instilling the wife with a tranquil peace, which will be for the quiet of all" (as we read in page 190).

This is also proved by the letter of the Abate produced on the other side (p. 182), where we read: "By Signor Guido, my brother, several offers have been made to him, but have not been accepted; and they insist that we force our mother and the Signor Canon to leave the house. But this shall never be, even if there do not follow both love and concord. I will never advise that."

And from the letter of Signor Romano, 188, later, where we read (cf.