"The Cenci Palace is of great extent: and, though in part modernized, there yet remains a vast and gloomy pile of feudal architecture in the same state as during the dreadful scenes which it once witnessed. The palace is situated in an obscure corner of Rome, near the quarter of the Jews, and from the upper windows you see the immense ruins of Mount Palatine, half hidden under the profuse undergrowth of trees. There is a court in one part of the palace supported by columns, and adorned with antique friezes of fine workmanship, and built up, after the Italian fashion, with balcony over balcony of open work. One of the gates of the palace, formed of immense stones, and leading through a passage dark and lofty, and opening into gloomy subterranean chambers, struck me particularly."—Shelley's Preface to "The Cenci."
Opposite the further entrance of the Palace, is the tiny Church of S. Tommaso del Cenci, founded 1113 by Cencio, bishop of Sabina; granted by Julius II. to Rocco Cenci;—and rebuilt in 1575 by the wicked Count Cenci.
"In 1585, Francesco Cenci was the head of the family, a man of passions so ungovernable and heart so depraved, that he hesitated at no species of crime. His first wife was a Princess Santa Croce, whom he is believed to have poisoned in order to marry the beautiful Lucrezia Petroni. His domestic cruelties to his children, especially to his three elder sons, Giacomo, Christoforo, and Rocco, were so terrible, that they petitioned the reigning Pope Clement VIII. to interfere in their behalf, but he abruptly dismissed them as rebels against the paternal authority; one daughter, Marguerita, alone escaped from her miserable home, being given in marriage by the pope to a Signor Gabrielli.
"The escape of this daughter made Francesco the more embittered against the remainder of his family. His youngest child, Beatrice, he immured in a solitary chamber, to which no one but himself was admitted, and where he constantly starved and beat her severely. When he received the news that his sons Christoforo and Rocco were assassinated in the neighbourhood of Rome by an unknown hand, he expressed the utmost joy, declaring that no money of his should purchase masses for the repose of their souls, and that he could have no peace until his wife and every child he had were in their graves.
"Lucrezia, believing that the monster whom she had espoused was possessed, in spite of his cruelty, by a criminal passion for his own daughter, attempted secretly to save her, by presenting a memorial to the pope imploring him to give her in marriage to a Signor Guerra, who had long been attached to her. But this petition was intercepted by Francesco, who then carried off Lucrezia and his two youngest children, Beatrice and Bernardo, to Petrella, a vast and desolate castle in the Apennines. Guerra, and Giacomo the eldest remaining brother of Beatrice, hired a band of banditti in the Sabine hills who were to attack the party on the way, and to carry off Francesco for a ransom, liberating the women;—but the rescue arrived too late.
"When they reached Petrella, Beatrice was incarcerated in a subterranean dungeon, where she was persuaded that her lover Guerra had been murdered, and was treated with such awful cruelty by her father, that, for a time, she was deprived of her reason. One day a servant, Marzio, whose betrothed had previously been seduced and murdered by Francesco, roused by the shrieks of Beatrice, burst into the room, and rushing upon his master dealt a terrible thrust with a dagger on his neck, exclaiming, 'I murder thee, assassin of thy own blood.' But Cenci arose uninjured, to the horror of Marzio, who imagined that only a demon could avert such a blow, and who was ignorant that he wore under his vestments, even in bed, a coat of mail which covered his entire body.
"At length Beatrice contrived to communicate with her brother Giacomo, who united with Guerra in hiring the services of Marzio and of Olympio, another servant, who was inspired with an equal thirst for vengeance upon Count Cenci. All felt that the death of Francesco was the only hope for his unhappy family. The assassins communicated with Lucrezia, who administered an opiate to her husband, and then stole from him some keys which enabled her after midnight to liberate Bernardo and Beatrice. The latter she found in a state of stupefaction, and vainly endeavoured to rouse her, signifying that the moment of escape had arrived. Beatrice showed no symptom of surprise at the announcement, or at the visit of her stepmother at that strange hour; she asked not how they had opened her door, or how her liberty had been acquired. When they were all assembled in the hall, Lucrezia told them the project, and asked their aid. Bernardo at first hesitated, but Lucrezia roused him by every argument she could urge and obtained his consent. Beatrice made no reply.
" ... Francesco Cenci was murdered in his sleep. Marzio placed a large nail or iron bolt on his right eye, which Olympio, with one blow of a hammer, drove straight into the brain. The deed thus accomplished, Marzio and Olympio wrapped the dead body in a sheet, and carried it to a small pavilion built at the end of a terrace-walk, overlooking an orchard. From this height they cast it down on an old gnarled elder-tree, in order that when the body should be found the next morning, it might appear that whilst walking on the terrace, the foot of the count had slipped, and that he had fallen head-foremost on one of the stunted branches of the tree, which, piercing through his eye to the brain, had caused his death. Returning to the hall, they received from Lucrezia a purse of gold; Marzio, carrying with him a valuable cloak trimmed with gold lace, turned towards Beatrice (who still stood leaning against the table), and saying, 'I shall keep this as a memorial of you,' departed with Olympio. The report of Francesco's death was not spread through the castle until the next morning. Lucrezia then rushed through the house uttering cries. In a day or two the funeral took place, and immediately after the family returned to Rome. Giacomo took possession of the Cenci palace, and Beatrice daily improved in health of body and mind.
"Soon, however, the suspicious circumstances of Count Cenci's death excited attention; the body was exhumed and examined, and the inhabitants of Petrella placed under arrest, when a washerwoman deposed to having received bloody sheets from one of the inhabitants of the castle—she thought from Beatrice—the day after the murder. On hearing this, the fear that he would turn against them, induced Signor Guerra to hire assassins to pursue Olympio, whom they despatched at Terni; but Marzio was arrested, and confessed the circumstances of the murder, though when confronted with Beatrice, he proclaimed her innocence of it, and declared her incapable of crime.
"Guerra made good his escape, but the whole Cenci family were thrown into prison and put to the torture. Giacomo, Bernardo, and Lucrezia, unable to endure the sufferings of the rack, confessed at once.