The Franceschini had become at last,

The meanness and the misery of each shift

To save a soldo, stretch and make ends meet.

Next, the more hateful aspect,—how myself

With cruelty beyond Caligula's

Had stripped and beaten, robbed and murdered them,

The good old couple, I decoyed, abused,

Plundered and then cast out, and happily so,

Since,—in due course the abominable comes,—

Woe worth the poor young wife left lonely here!