Before some shame which modesty would veil?

Who blames the gesture prettily perverse?

Thus,—lest ye miss a point illustrative,—

Admit the husband's calumny—allow

That the wife, having penned the epistle fraught

With horrors, charge on charge of crime she heaped

O' the head of Pietro and Violante—(still

Presumed her parents)—having dispatched the same

To their arch-enemy Paolo, through free choice

And no sort of compulsion in the world—