The Old Yellow Book Part 24

I made this September 3, 1698.

MOLINELLUS.

SEPTEMBER 4, 1698.

When he had made statement of fact, R. D. Alexander Ca.s.sar, Subst.i.tute Procurator of the Poor, appeared, pet.i.tioned, and was granted as above.

By the Governor in criminal causes, or the Most Excellent Lord Venturini.

Let those named below be cited for learning of the appeal and its lawful prosecution, this fourth time, and of the final presentation, and the decree, etc., at the aforesaid instance of Domenico Tighetti, heir-beneficiary of the former Francesca Pompilia, formerly wife of the former Guido Franceschini, as princ.i.p.al, or, etc.

CHARITAS.

D. Giovanni Maria Serbucci, as Procurator and Manager of the lawsuit brought by the former Guido Franceschini as princ.i.p.al on the other side.

D. Francesco Paracciani, as Procurator of the Venerable Monastery and Convent of Santa Maria Magdalena in the Corso, for all, etc.

I have done this, September 4, 1698

BALATRESIUS.

_September 5, 1698._

When he had made statement of fact, R. D. Alexander Ca.s.sar, Subst.i.tute Procurator of the Poor, appeared, pet.i.tioned, and was granted, as above.

I, Domenico Barlocci, Notary of the Court of Criminal Causes of the Most Ill.u.s.trious and Most Reverend Governor of the City, as Notary for the Poor, have found this copy correct by collating it, although it was extracted from the original doc.u.ments by one who is trustworthy in my eyes, etc. In pledge of the above, I have subscribed and have published it, as I am required to do.

[The seal of the said Notary.]

THE SECONDARY SOURCE

OF

THE RING AND THE BOOK

A CONTEMPORARY Ma.n.u.sCRIPT PAMPHLET

"The following pages contain a MS. contemporaneous account of the execution of the princ.i.p.al actors in the tragedy which has been immortalised in the poem of the _Ring and the Book_.

"I am enabled by the kindness of my friend, Mr. Browning, to give it a place in these Miscellanies of the Philobiblion Society."

JOHN SIMEON.

(I shall not attempt to say with what a feeling I correct proof-sheets received on the day subsequent to that which brought the intelligence of the death of this great-hearted and n.o.ble-minded man, characteristically good and gracious to the very last.)

R. B., May 24, 1870.

The above words are the introduction by Sir John Simeon and the comment by the poet (Philobiblion Society Miscellanies, xii. 1868-9), on the reprint of the subsequent pamphlet in the original Italian.

It was found in London by one of Browning's acquaintances, who, knowing the poet's interest in the subject, sent it to him. Internal evidence indicates that it was probably written (but not published) some few years after the crime, and it is more popular in style than any part of _The Book_. The writer during the first half of his pamphlet follows closely the affidavit of Pompilia and the second anonymous pamphlet [No. 15] of _The Book_. He then adds much interesting information as to the murder and the pursuit, arrest, trial, and execution of the criminals. Browning uses almost every sc.r.a.p of additional information it affords. He accepts its fact with the same fidelity he shows in using _The Book_, and uses it extensively and without discounting its value as compared with the official record. It is therefore treated as an essential portion of the present source-study. Its new matter will be indicated by italics in the following translation.

Mrs. Orr has published somewhat less than half of the pamphlet in her _Handbook_ in translation, which has been reprinted in the Camberwell Browning, and in the _Browning Guide Book_ by G. W. Cook. The present version is made directly from the Italian text of the Philobiblion Society reprint.

THE DEATH OF THE WIFE-MURDERER GUIDO FRANCESCHINI, BY BEHEADING

Guido Franceschini, a n.o.bleman of Arezzo, in Tuscany, had stayed for some time here in Rome in the service of a person of some eminence. He decided to take a wife with dowry enough to be of advantage to his own house. When he had revealed this desire to a certain hairdresser _near the Piazza Colonna_, she proposed to him the Signora Francesca Pompilia, thirteen years of age, the daughter of a certain Pietro Comparini and Violante Peruzzi. For beside the promised dowry, she was heir to the reversionary interest in bonds and other properties worth about 12,000 scudi. When he had heard of this advantageous dowry, which seemed to him to be quite to his point, he lost no time in revealing it to his brother Abate Paolo, who had dwelt here in Rome for many years in the service of a Cardinal. He went along with Guido to the mother of the young woman, as they flattered themselves that they would succeed better in this way than by demanding her of the father, who was somewhat hard to approach. When they had made it appear that their income was of considerable amount, they succeeded in their intent; although it was then found out that their entire capital did not amount to the total of their income as given in that note.

It was easy for Franceschini to win over this woman, as _she was driven by the ambition of establishing her daughter in the home of persons of good birth_. She gave her own consent, and so worked upon her husband as to induce him to sign the marriage bond. Then when Comparini had been informed by a person who knew the resources of Franceschini, that they were quite different from what they had been represented to him, he changed his mind, nor did he wish under any consideration to carry out the marriage. _He gave as a pretext the very tender age of his daughter_, along with other reasons. The mother of Francesca, however, not seeing any chance to give her daughter to Franceschini, had her secretly _married during December_, 1693, _in San Lorenzo in Lucina_.

When this marriage reached the ears of Comparini, he was much angered at Violante. But she had such a gift of gab that Comparini not only agreed to it, but beside the dowry of 2,600 scudi, _on which he had already paid 700 scudi, he also made gift of his entire possessions to the couple_.

After several days, Franceschini decided to conduct his wife and her parents back to Arezzo, _and this took place in the same December_.

When they had arrived there, the parents of the wife could see that the state of their son-in-law was much worse than they had imagined it. Therefore they were all the more embittered at the penuriousness they showed in the food, and many other matters. _One morning while they were at the table they heard their daughter_ [Violante according to _The Book_] _denied fire for warming her bed_, and saw the Franceschini practise many other cruelties toward her. They were much troubled at it, and _all the more so when they saw a Canon of the Franceschini household, a brother of the husband, rush upon their daughter_ [Violante according to _The Book_]. _He struck Francesca with a dagger in his hand, who had to make her escape by running into a room and shutting the door. Then one evening her father went to visit a friend, and when he had come back home he found the door shut.

Therefore his daughter, who was still awake, was obliged to go downstairs to open it for him, but not without first having called her husband, who never even opened an eye. Then when she had gone down to open the door and had gone outside a few steps to meet her father, all of a sudden she found herself shut outside the house along with her father. For that reason they were both of them obliged to sleep outside of the house that night, her father at the inn and the daughter at one of the neighbours._ Therefore, more and more, as the days pa.s.sed, the Comparini decided to return to Rome. But as they were without money they were obliged to beg it of Franceschini, who _scarcely gave them the necessary expenses of the journey_.

When the old Comparini had departed, Franceschini thought to hide what had happened. He constrained his wife to write to Rome to the Abate, his brother, to tell him that she cherished in her heart his memory.

This letter was dictated by the husband himself. The ignorant girl did as Guido wished, whose purpose was to have it believed that his parents-in-law were the fomentors of the dissension which prevailed between the couple and the relatives of Franceschini.

When the Comparini had reached Rome, ill-contented as they were with the house of their son-in-law, for whom they now saw they had sacrificed their daughter, they did not know how to hold their peace about that matter, of which they themselves had been the cause. All the more so when they were hara.s.sed for the remainder of the dowry, beside the fact that they saw the rest of their property in danger.

While affairs were in this state a Jubilee was announced; under these circ.u.mstances Violante Comparini revealed in confession that Francesca Pompilia, who was married to Franceschini, was not their daughter, but that the birth had been pretended. She had in fact been born of a _poor widow, a foreigner_, and had then been adopted to bring it about that the reversionary interest would fall to their house, and hence to make good the many debts of her husband. _When the confessor heard this, he charged her to reveal all the affair to her husband himself.

Violante obeyed, and Comparini was greatly surprised at it, and rebuked his wife sharply._ He then submitted the matter to judgment before Monsignor Tomati; the following was spoken in sentence: It should be maintained that Francesca Pompilia shall be and is in quasi-possession of her relationship as daughter. Therefore appeal was taken by Comparini to the Tribunal of the Sacred Rota, but the suit still remains undecided. In the meantime the Franceschini, seeing that they had been deluded by this circ.u.mstance, since they could not get possession of the residue of the dowry, redoubled their cruelties to the poor Pompilia even to the point of threatening her with death.

Hence she was very often obliged to save herself by fleeing into some other house, or before the authorities, or even into the presence of the Bishop, _whom she finally begged to save her by putting her in some monastery_. But this prelate thought it better to send her back to her husband's home, urging him not to mistreat her.

When the unfortunate woman saw that the admonitions of this Bishop had been useless, and that this way of softening the heart of her husband and his relatives had proved vain, and when they reproved her for sterility and for coquetry, and for other faults of their own imagining, she betook herself to an Augustinian, Romano, that he might write to his Superiors or to her parents to find some provision for her. But although the Father promised to do as she desired, his letters never reached their destination. The wretched woman was therefore desperate and determined to get to Rome in some manner or other. She told the whole matter to Canon Conti, a relative of the Franceschini, to whom she made a most pathetic picture of her situation. He was moved thereby, and answered that he would aid her, as he did, by offering to have her taken to Rome by Canon Caponsacchi, his friend, since he himself ought not and could not do it. When the circ.u.mstances had been told to Caponsacchi, he was opposed to it, for fear of incurring the anger of the Franceschini; but when he had been urged both by Conti and the woman, he consented thereto. And on the last Monday of April the wife arose from bed as soon as day dawned, without her husband knowing about it. She took some things of her own, some jewels, and money, left the house, and at the gate of the city found Caponsacchi, who was awaiting her with a carriage. They mounted together and set out on the road toward Rome.

When Franceschini awoke and discovered the flight of his wife, as he already suspected that she had started for Rome, he began to pursue her, and on the following Tuesday [should be Wednesday] overtook her at Castelnuovo in the post-house, where she was in company with Caponsacchi. The young woman was not at all terrified at the sight of her husband, but on the contrary she mustered her courage and reproved him for all the cruelties practised upon her, because of which she had been forced to this step. Then Franceschini was thunderstruck, and did not know how or what to respond. Hence he thought it best to have recourse to the authorities. The fugitives were arrested by the Governor of the place, and both of them were taken to Rome and placed in the New Prisons, and were charged with adultery because they had run away together. He tried to prove the charge by certain love-letters which had been found, and by the deposition of the driver. But as the adultery was not proved, the Canon was condemned for three years to Civita Vecchia, and the wife was shut into the monastery of the Scalette on the Lungara.

When the husband therefore saw that this had not helped him in gaining the dowry, he decided to go back to his own country, leaving the care of his case in the hands of his brother, the Abate, who was in the service of a Cardinal. But although the Abate tried by many a turn to succeed in his intent before the tribunals, he could not achieve it.

Hence he also decided to leave Rome. And he was spurred all the more by its becoming known that his sister Pompilia was with child. For this reason, the Governor of Rome had constrained him to consent that she should keep her own home as a prison, under security of 300 scudi to present herself at every demand of the Tribunal. The Abate indeed was unwilling to give his consent unless Pietro Comparini should first a.s.sume obligation, by an official doc.u.ment, to furnish her with food.

_And then, when he had obtained the permission of his Cardinal, he sold his furniture and books_, and when he had made them pay over the 47 scudi which had been found upon Pompilia at Castelnuovo, he left Rome. After that Pompilia bore a son, _whom she named Gaetano, after the saint to whom she made her vows_.

Franceschini, who was now overwhelmed with manifold troubles, and was urged on now by honour and again by self-interest to take vengeance, at last yielded to his base thoughts and planned to kill his sixteen-year-old wife and her parents. When four other criminals had been admitted to the scheme, he left Arezzo, _and on Christmas eve reached Rome. He stopped at Ponte Milvio, where there was a villa of his brother. There he remained in hiding with his followers until a time opportune for the execution of his designs should come._

They spied out all the ways of the Comparini family, and on January 2, _which was Thursday_, at about seven o'clock in the evening, he approached the Comparini home with his companions. He left on guard at the street door Biagio Agostinelli and Domenico Gamba.s.sini, and knocked at the door. When he had said that he brought a letter of Canon Caponsacchi from Civita Vecchia the door was opened to him.

Immediately this cut-throat Franceschini, a.s.sisted by the other two criminals, leaped upon Violante who had opened it and struck her dead to the ground. Pompilia in this crisis extinguished the light, hoping thus to escape the a.s.sa.s.sins, _and ran to the neighbouring door of a locksmith crying out for help. But when she saw that Franceschini was provided with a lantern she went to hide under the bed_; but she was dragged from there, and was barbarously slain _with 22 wounds_ by the hand of her husband. Not content with that, he dragged her to the feet of Comparini, who was likewise wounded by one of the other a.s.sa.s.sins, _and was crying out_ "_confession_."