at this moment, the door opened and a number of voices cried, " Enough, enough, do not let her suffer longer." The voices were those of other members of the Cenci family, for the judges despair ing of obtaining a confession by means of the torture, had directed a confrontation of all the accused. Even to their prayers, Beatrice for some time refused to listen, pleading with them to remember the honor of the family and keep silent. Finally realizing the futility of fur ther concealment, " Untie me," she said "and read me the interrogatories. That which I ought to confess that will I confess, that to which I ought to assent, to that will I assent, and that which I ought to deny, that will I deny." Clement VIII. was the reigning Pontiff, a Florentine of the great Aldobrandini family. Partisan writers have fostered the belief that the chief crime of the Cenci was their im mense wealth, afterwards, it is alleged, con fiscated by the papal see. This however is scarcely accurate, for the accused appear to have received all due and proper consideration at the hands of the authorities. Though tor ture was resorted to, we must remember that it is but a short time, comparatively speaking, since this ceased to be a recognized part of continental procedure, and its final discontin uance was regarded by many as a most dan gerous innovation. Only within the past year has English law permitted an accused person to testify on his own behalf. What ever be the demerits of the system under which she was found guilty, Beatrice was tried with all the fairness and impartiality which the jurisprudence of mediaeval Italy allowed to a prisoner. Time was given the accused to prepare their defence, which was under taken by some of the most eminent advocates of the time. Chief of these was the Prospero Farinaccio previously alluded to, who was af terwards Procurator General under Paulus V. It is possibly due to the many specious inven tions coined by that learned practitioner in
endeavoring to save the lives of his clients, that much of the present uncertainty exists. He appears to have hesitated at nothing and even went so far as to claim that Bernardo was of unsound mind. To Francesco, he imputed the most monstrous crimes. Extant is his plea beginning : " Holy Father, although Beatrice Cenci has im piously procured the death of her father," etc. It is barely possible, not that a pardon would have been issued, for the offense was too heinous, but that lesser punishment might have been inflicted, had not a new crime been committed in the interval, in many re spects similar to that of the Cenci. The Pope on learning of the revolting murder of the Marquise of Santa Croce by her son Paolo and the subsequent flight of the crim inal, is said to have feared the effect of any display of leniency. On the Qth of Septem ber he summoned before him Monsignore Taverna, Governor of Rome, and placed the matter in his hands. Bernardo was alone exceptecl from the execution of the decree. At five o'clock on the following morning, the prisoners were aroused from sleep by the entrance of the officers attended by brethren of the Misericordia — that masked fraternity whose duty it is to accompany the prisoner to the scaffold. Strange as it may seem, Beatrice alone failed to receive the news calmly. Soon she recovered herself and listened to the sentence unmoved. Mother and daughter were to be beheaded. Giacomo, besides having his flesh torn with red hot pinchers while on the way to the scaffold, was to suffer the punishment of the mazzolato — to be killed by a blow from a mace — and his body quartered. All called for notaries and executed their wills in due form. That of Beatrice pro vided that her body be buried in the Church of San Pietro in Montorio to which she leaves a hundred crowns. A special bequest to the same church of three thousand crowns is added for the purpose of building a wall
