They entered Massimi's apartment upon his wedding night and shot his bride to death in his arms. The old man cursed his sons excepting only the youngest, Pompeo, who had taken no part in the assassination, and shortly afterward died broken-hearted, foretelling that Pompeo alone would continue the line as all of his brothers would die violent deaths.[9]
The record of the hearts of flame which have burned themselves out in the old nest of the phœnix might be indefinitely prolonged, for though battered by many sieges Palliano was never totally destroyed, and formed the background of many a sinister drama. Marie Mancini Colonna, Principessa di Palliano, writes that fear of imprisonment in the dungeon of her titular castle was the principal motive of her flight from her husband in 1672. She had been threatened with such a fate and the threat was not without precedent.
As a prison the Castle of Palliano exists at the present day. Has its symbol of the phœnix attained a new meaning, and is it possible that erring souls issue from its gates, their stains burned clean by purgatorial flame?
Marie Mancini Colonna, Principessa di Palliano, by Mignard
Photographische Gesellschaft, Berlin
CHAPTER IX
THE LURE OF OLD ROME