BROWNING'S ITALY (32 page)

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striven to enlist the aid of his brother-in-law, Conti. She had implored a priest in confession to write for her to her parents and induce them to fetch her away. But the whole town was in the interest of the Franceschini, or in dread of them. Her prayers were useless, and Caponsacchi, whom she had heard of as a 'resolute man,' appeared her last resource. He was, as she knew, contemplating a jouraey to Rome; an opportunity presented itself for speaking to him from her window, or her balcony, and she persuaded him, though not without difficulty, to assist her escape and con-duct her to her old home. On a given night she slipped away from her husband's side and joined the Canon where he awaited her with a carriage. They traveled day and night tili they reached Castelnuovo, a village within four hours of the journey's end. There they were compelled to rest, and there also the husband overtook them. They were not to-gether at the moment; but the fact of the elopement was patent; and if Franceschini had killed his wife there, in the supposed excitement of the discovery, the law might have dealt leniently with him. But it suited him best for the time being to let her live. He procured the arrest of the fugitives, and after a short confinement on the spot, they were conveyed to the New Prisons in Rome (Carceri Nuove) and tried on the charge of adultery.

"It is impossible not to believe that Count Guido had been working toward this end. Pompilia's verbal Communications with Caponsacchi had been supplemented by letters, now brought to him in her name, now thrown or let down from her window as he passed the house. They were written, as he said, on the subject of the flight, and, as he also said, he burned them as soon as read, not doubting their authenticity. But Pompilia declared, on examination, that she could neither write nor read; and setting aside all presumption of her veracity, this was more than probable. The writer of the

letters must, therefore, have been the Count, or some one employed by him for the purpose. He now completed the intrigue by producing eighteen or twenty more of a very in-criminating character, which he declared to have been left by the prisoners at Castelnuovo; and these were not only disclaimed with every appearance of sincerity by both the persons accused, but bore the marks of forgery within them-selves.

"Pompilia and Caponsacchi answered all the questions addressed to them simply and firmly; and though their Statements did not always coincide, these were calculated on the whole to create a moral conviction of their innocence; the facts on which they disagreed being of little weight. But moral conviction was not legal proof; the question of false testimony does not seem to have been even raised; and the Court found itself in a dilemma, which it acknowledged in the following way: it was decreed that for his complicity in' the flight and deviation of Francesca Comparini,' and too great intimacy with her, Caponsacchi should be banished for three years to Civita Vecchia; and that Pompilia, on her side, should be relegated, for the time being, to a convent. That is to say the prisoners were pronounced guilty; and a merely nominal punishment was inflicted upon them.

"The records of this trial contain almost everything of biographical or even dramatic interest in the original book. They are, so far as they go, the complete history of the case; and the result of the trial, ambiguous as it was, supplied the only argument on which an even formal defense of the sub-sequent murder could be based. The substance of these records appears in füll in Mr. Browning's work; and his readers can judge for themselves whether the letters which were intended to substantiate Pompilia's guilt, could, even if she had possessed the power of writing, have been written by a woman so young and so uncultured as herseif. They will

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also see that the Count's plot against his wife was still more deeply laid than the above-mentioned circumstances attest.

"Count Guido was of course not satisfied. He wanted a divorce; and he continued to sue for it by means of his brother, the Abate Paul, then residing in Rome; but before long he received news which was destined to change his plans. Pompilia was about to become a mother; and in consideration of her State she had been removed from the convent to her paternal home, where she was still to be ostensibly a prisoner. The Comparini then occupied a small villa outside one of the city gates. A few months later, in this secluded spot, the Countess Franceschini gave birth to a son, whom her parents lost no time in conveying to a place of concealment and safety. The minder took place a fortnight after this event. I give the rest of the story in an almost literal trans-lation from a contemporary narrative, which was published immediately after the Count's execution, in the form of a pamphlet l — the then current Substitute for a newspaper.

"Being oppressed by various feelings, and stimulated to revenge, now by honor, now by self-interest, yielding to his wicked thoughts, he (Count Guido) devised a plan for kill-ing his wife and her nominal parents; and having enlisted in his enterprise four other ruffians,' — laborers on his property,— startedwith them from Arezzo,and on Christmas-eve arrived in Rome and took up his abode at Ponte Milvio, where there was a villa belonging to his brother and where he concealed himself with his followers tili the fitting moment for the execution of his design had arrived. Having there-fore watched from thence all the movements of the Comparini family, he proceeded on Thursday, the 2d of January, at one o'clock of the night, 2 with his companions to the Com-

1 This pamphlet has supplied Mr. Browning with some of his most curious facts. It feil into his hands in London.

"The first hour after sunset.

parini's house; and having left Biagio Agostinelli and Domenico Gambasini at the gate, he instructed one of the others to knock at the house-door, which was opened to him on his declaring that he brought a letter from Canon Capon-sacchi at Civita Vecchia. The wicked Franceschini, sup-ported by two other of his assassins, instantly threw himself on Violante Comparini, who had opened the door, and flung her dead upon the ground. Pomilia, in this extremity, ex-tinguished the light, thinking thus to elude her assassins, and made for the door of a neighboring blacksmith, crying for help. Seeing Franceschini provided with a lantern, she ran and hid herseif under the bed, but being dragged from nnder it, the unhappy woman was barbarously put to death by twenty-two wounds from the hand of her husband, who, not content with this, dragged her to the feet of Comparini, who, being similarly wounded by another of the assassins, was crying, ' confession. 9

"At the noise of this horrible massacre people rushed to the spot; but the villains succeeded in flying, leaving behind, however, in their haste, one his cloak, and Franceschini his cap, which was the means of betraying them. The unfor-tunate Francesca Pompilia, in spite of all the wounds with which she had been mangled, having implored of the Holy Virgin the grace of being allowed to confess, obtained it, since she was able to survive for a short time and describe the horrible attack. She also related that after the deed, her husband asked the assassin who had helped him to murder her if she were reaüy dead; and being assured that she was, quickly rejoined, let us lose no time, but return to the vineyard; 1 and so they escaped. Meanwhile the police (Forza) having been called, it arrived with its chief officer (Bargello), and a confessor was soon procured, together with a surgeon

1 "Villa" is oflen called "vineyard" or "vigna," on account of the vineyard attached to it

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who devoted himself to the treatment of the unfortunate girl.

"Monsignore the Governor, being informed of the event, immediately despatched Captain Patrizj to arrest the culprits, but on reaching the vineyard the police officers discovered that they were no longer there, but had gone toward the high road an hour before. Patrizj pursued his journey without rest, and having arrived at the inn was told by the landlord that Franceschini had insisted upon obtaining horses, which were refused to him because he was not supplied with the necessary order; and had proceeded therefore on foot with his oompanions toward Baccano. Continuing his march and taking the necessary precautions, he arrived at the Merluzza inn, and there discovered the assassins, who were speedily arrested, their knives still stained with blood, a hundred and fifty scudi in coin being also found in Franceschini's person. The arrest, however, cost Patrizj his life, for he had heated himself too much, and having received a slight wound, died in a few days.

"The knife of Franceschini was on the Genoese pattern, and triangulär; and was notched at the edge, so that it could not be withdrawn from the wounded flesh without lacerating it in such a manner as to render the wound incurable.

"The criminals being taken to Ponte Milvio, they went through a first examination at the inn there at the hands of the notaries and judges sent thither for the purpose, and the chief points of a confession were obtained from them.

" When the capture of the delinquents was known in Rome, a multitude of the people hastened to see them as they were conveyed bound on horses into the city. It is related that Franceschini having asked one of the police officers in the course of the journey how ever the crime had been discovered, and being told that it had been revealed by his vrife, whom they had found still living, was almost stupefied by the

intelligence. Toward twenty-three o'clock (the last hour before sunset) they arrived at the prisons. A certain Francesco Pasquini, of Cittä di Castello, and Allessandro Baldeschi, of the same town, both twenty-years of age, were the assist-ants of Guido Franceschini in the murder of the Comparini; and Gambasini and Agnostinelli were those who stood on guard at the gate.

"Meanwhile the corpses of the assassinated Comparini were exposed at San Lorenzo in Lucina, but so disfigured, and especailly Franceschini's wife, by their wounds in the face, that they were no longer recognizable. The unhappy Francesca, after taking the sacrament, forgiving her mur-derers, under seventeen years of age, and after having made her will, died on the sixth day of the month, which was that of the Epiphany; and was able to clear herseif of all the calumnies which her husband had brought against her. The surprise of the people in seeing these corpses was great, from the atrocity of the deed, which made one really shudder, seeing two septuagenarians and a girl of seventeen so miser-ably put to death.

"The trial proceeding meanwhile, many papers were drawn up on the subject, bringing forward all the most incriminating circumstances of this horrible massacre; and others also were written for the defense with much erudition, especially by the advocate of the poor, a certain Monsignor Spreti, which had the effect of postponing the sentence; also because Baldeschi persisted in denial though he was tortured with the rope and twice fainted under it. At last he con-fessed, and so did the others, who also revealed the fact that they had intended in due time to murder Franceschini him-self, and take his money, because he had not kept his promise of paying them the moment they should have lef t Rome.

"On the twenty-second of February there appeared on the Piazza del Popolo a large platform with a guillotine and

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two gibbets, on which the culprits were to be executed. Many Stands were constructed for the convenience of those who were curious to witness such a terrible act of justice; and the concourse was so great that some Windows fetched as much as six dollars each. At eight o'clock Franceschini and his companions were summoned to their death, and having been placed in the Consorteria and there assisted by the Abate Panciatici and the Cardinal Acciajuoli, forthwith disposed themselves to die well. At twenty o'clock the Company of Death and the Misericordia reached the dungeons and the condemned were let down, placed on separate carte, and conveyed to the place of execution."

"It is further stated that Franceschini showed the most in-trepidity and cold blood of them all, and that he died with the name of Jesus on his lips. He wore the same clothes in which he had committed the crime: a close fitting garment (jiute-aurcorps) of gray cloth, a loose black shirt (camiciuola), a goat's hair cloak, a white hat, and a cotton cap.

"The attempt made by him to defraud his accomplices, poor and helpless as they were, has been accepted by Mr. Browning as an indication of character which forbade any lenient interpretations of his previous acts. Pompilia, on the other hand, is absolved, by all the circumstances of her protracted death, from any doubt of her innocence which previous evidence might have raised. Ten different persons attest, not only her denial of any offence against her husband, but, what is of far more value, her Christian gentleness, and absolute maiden modesty, under the sufferings of her last days, and the medical treatment to which they subjected her. Among the witnesses are a doctor of theology (Abate Liberato Barben to), the apothecary and his assistant and a number of monks or priests; the first and most drcumstantial deposi-tion being that of an Augustine, Frä Celestino Angelo di Sant' Anna, and concluding with these words: 'I do not say

more, for fear of being taxed with partiality. I know well that God alone can examine the heart. But I know also that from the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks; and that my great St. Augustine says: "As the life was, so is its end."*

"It needed all the evidence in Pompilia's favor to secure the füll punishment of her murderer, strengthened, as he was, by social and ecclesiastical position, and by the acknowl-edged rights of marital jealousy. We find curious proof of the sympathies which might have prejudiced his wife's cause, in the marginal notes appended to her depositions, and which repeatedly introduce them as lies.

'F. Lie (xmcerning the arrival at Castelnuovo.' 'H. New lies to the effect that she did not receive the lover's letters, and does not know how to write, 9 etc., etc. 1

"The significant question,' Whether and when a husband may kill his unfaithful wife,' was in the present case not thought to be finally answered tili an appeal had been made from the ecclesiastical tribunal to the Pope himself. It was Innocent Xu who virtually sentenced Count Franceschini and his four accomplices to death."