The first question put to her was, whether she had any idea of the cause of her arrest. She answered at once, "The death of La Sirani."
"Are you aware that any painter or other person had any feeling of envy or hatred against the deceased?"
"I neither know, nor did I ever hear of any body hating the Signora Elisabetta, from professional jealousy or any other cause."
"What was your reason for so suddenly leaving the family a few days before the fair?"
"Because I was weary of hearing continual fault–finding."
"Were you then not treated well in the Sirani family?"
"By the gentlemen[231] of the family, I was always well treated; and especially by the Signora Elisabetta. And if it had not been for her kindness, I should certainly have left the house long before, so insupportable were the annoyances of the Signora Margherita. But I remained for love of the Signora Elisabetta, who was very fond of me."
She was then questioned about the tinker; although her conduct with respect to him does not appear to have the slightest bearing on the case. She admitted, that he had been an old sweetheart of hers, when she lived with her mother, and he had been a lodger in the same house.
Then came the circumstance of the old woman, and the soup, and the red powder. The woman, by this time, quite recovered from her illness, swore positively that Lucia had taken the powder from her bosom, and that it was red, and that she had said that it was cinnamon. Lucia, confronted with her, swore that she took the powder from a box on a shelf, that it was pepper, and she put it into the soup in presence of Giacoma, Sirani's sister, who, as we have seen, was the family cook.