Part 11 (1/2)
_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_.