The Old Yellow Book: Source of Robert Browning's The Ring and the Book

by Unknown

Pietro felt the blow keenly, but being unable to find any remedy for it, he cloaked his anger with the show of being displeased at not having been present, and this displeasure would cease in him with the joy of the nuptial feast, which should be in their house. He assigned to his daughter as dowry twenty-six bonds, with future succession to the remainder. On the very same day, after talking of the advantages which would result to both houses from the union of their interests, they decided upon the removal of the Comparini to Arezzo, which followed in a few days, and with it the absolute administration of the property by Guido.

When they had reached Arezzo the Comparini were received by the mother and relatives of Franceschini with all that show of love which is customary on such occasions. But very soon, from constant association, disturbances arose, and thence they passed to hostilities. The mother of Guido, a proud, avaricious woman, who governed the household despotically, took to stinting it even in the necessary food. This moved the Comparini to complaints, to which the Franceschini first responded with insults and then with threats. This was a thing Violante could not tolerate, for, being a woman, she had her own share of natural arrogance. So she began tormenting Pietro, cursing the day when he had decided to move to Arezzo, laying the blame on him for all that of which she had been the cause. And Pietro, who was one of those men who let themselves be overcome by a couple of crocodile tears of their wives, instead of reproving her for the undertaking (although she had concluded the marriage against his wish and without his knowledge), entreated her affectionately to bear with patience the abuses, which would possibly cease when the Franceschini saw them defended by their daughter.

At that time [November 30, 1693] passed from this life to Heaven Cardinal Lauria, a churchman of merit beyond all praise. Then Abate Paolo was elected Secretary in Rome of the Religious Order of Malta. At this the haughtiness of the Franceschini increased so much that they considered it grand good fortune for the Comparini to be considered their friends, not to say their relatives. Violante being no longer able to live under the proud command of another woman, since she had been in the habit of domineering, as her husband had been subject to her wishes, so tormented him that she induced him to take up his residence in Rome again. For this purpose the Franceschini gave them a sum of money sufficient for the journey and for the most necessary furniture in the home.

Scarcely had they reached Rome when, to the surprise of everybody, it was reported that Pietro had dispatched a judicial warning, in which he set forth that Francesca Pompilia was not really his own daughter and that therefore he was not obliged to pay the dowry. He brought the attestation of Violante his wife, who had declared that to check her husband's creditors in the matter of the trust fund and to enjoy the income of the bonds she had feigned to be pregnant and, that her husband might not discover the trick, she agreed with him that when she became pregnant they should abstain from association until after the birth of their child. And so, on the very day of this pretence, they took separate bedrooms; still further, by well-arranged clothes, she feigned the swelling of the womb, and by suitable drugs made pretence of nausea until her time was come. She then took advantage of a day when Pietro was occupied in his lawsuits, to bring forth the pretended birth, which was well carried out by the sagacity of a midwife in the secret, who provided whatever was necessary. And that the house servant might not detect the trick, they sent him to the apothecary to secure certain medicines. At the same time the midwife went to get a little creature whom she had received the day before from a neighbour, who was already in the secret. When she had returned to the house she summoned a familiar friend of the Comparini from a window. Matters were so well arranged that when the woman arrived, there was nothing more to do than to make her believe what was not really so. And to trick more surely the thought of this neighbour, they feigned that when Violante wished to pass from the bed to a chair, she fainted into the arms of the woman by reason of her pains, since the midwife could not run up in time.

This unexpected act of Pietro, which became known in Rome immediately, was heard with less wonder than scorn. The just anger of the Franceschini would have undertaken due vengeance if it had not been mitigated by the hope that, since Pompilia was not the true and legitimate daughter of Pietro and Violante, the marriage would be annulled and Guido's wounded reputation would be healed. But when he had taken counsel with several authorities and found they were of different opinions, he was unwilling to risk so doubtful an affair, in the promotion of which they would necessarily confess and presuppose that she was not the daughter of the Comparini, and by this confession they would be prejudiced in their claims to the dowry. They opposed the judicial notice, and obtained for Pompilia the continuance of her quasi-relation as daughter, together with a decree for the transfer of the dowry bonds. But Pietro appealed to the Signature of Justice so trickily that the Franceschini had the expense of the transfer, but not the enjoyment of the income, since they obtained from it not even a two months' payment.

The unfortunate Pompilia was the victim of the hatred of these two houses; for she was left alone in Arezzo at the will of her husband, her mother-in-law, and her relatives, who were mortally offended at her parents, and she was hourly threatened with death. In so deplorable a state the courage even of a more mature woman would have failed, not to speak of that of a girl only sixteen years old. For she was innocent of the wiles of her mother and of the duplicity of her father and by her own good qualities she was worthy of tenderness rather than cruelty. The unhappy one suffered as best she could these tyrannies which were ever increasing, but despairing of all hope of peace, she often had recourse to the Governor of the City, that he might interpose his authority with the Franceschini. As this was of no avail, she threw herself at the feet of the Bishop, who had Guido come into his presence and who tried to reconcile him. But Guido's anger increased all the more because of this public recourse, and he threatened Pompilia with certain death if she should ever try it again.

When the poor child saw every way to peace closed against her she appealed to Canon Conti, a relative of the Franceschini, who was very well informed of her wretchedness because he visited the house, and she begged him to save her life, which was in continual peril. He was moved to pity, for he knew that she had no other remedy than flight. As he could not personally assist in this, lest he would have to bear the hatred of the entire family connection, he suggested to her that the very person for such an enterprise was the Canon Caponsacchi, his intimate friend and somewhat related to him by blood, whose courage was no less ready to meet danger than to overcome it.

Pompilia accepted the counsel of Conti, who lost no time in opening the affair with Caponsacchi. He at first showed some unwillingness, as he hesitated to carry away a wife from her husband, even with the sole purpose of conducting her to her own parents. But when he had been fully informed of the insufferable abuses of Guido and his relatives his pity prevailed over all other considerations and he accepted the undertaking. Pompilia, who was eager for this, tried to win him by letters and amorous verses, yet always keeping herself true to her marriage vows, as one may read in her letters. In some of these she praises the modesty of Caponsacchi, in others she reproves him for having sent some octaves which were slightly reprehensible, and she urged him to keep unstained that nobility of which he boasted. On the day appointed for flight, with the assistance of Canon Conti, the two took their places in a carriage and travelled as fast as they could, without resting save when it was necessary to change horses. They arrived the second morning at dawn at Castelnuovo, and, in spite of the fact that the host had assigned them a bed for repose, Pompilia seated herself in a chair and Caponsacchi went down to the stable to urge on the driver.

When Guido awoke after the flight of Pompilia and perceived that she was not in bed, he arose in a fury, and, seeing the jewel-box open and minus the jewels and money, which it had contained, he surmised what had happened to him. Accordingly, on a good horse, he sped along the Roman road and overtook the fugitives at the abovesaid inn of Castelnuovo an hour after their arrival. When Pompilia saw him, with that courage which desperation may arouse even in the weakest spirits, she seized Caponsacchi's sword which lay upon the table, unsheathed it, and thrust at his life, calling him betrayer and tyrant. Guido, fearing lest her spirit no less than the valour of Caponsacchi might bring his death rather than revenge, turned his horse and rushed to the authorities. He had the fugitives arrested and conveyed to the New Prisons, where he entered charge of flight and adultery against them.

The Abate Paolo who, as has been said, was the Secretary of the Religious Order of Malta in Rome, made noisy recourse for his honour to the Pope, and he put a petition before Monsignor Pallavicino, the Governor, demanding that he declare Caponsacchi the seducer of his sister-in-law, and both of them guilty of adultery, and that his brother for that reason was entitled to gain the entire dowry. Legal proceedings were instituted against them according to the most rigorous forms of law, but no proof of guilt was found against Caponsacchi and Pompilia except the love-letters written at the time of the arranging of the flight, the undertaking of the flight itself, and the deposition of the driver. For the latter declared that he had sometimes seen, when he had turned back during the journey, that they were joined face to face, that is cheek to cheek, a matter which did not make full proof of fault, since the rough roads and the headlong speed of the journey jostling them about might have been the cause of it. Wherefore the Court deemed it prudent and just to sentence Caponsacchi to three years' relegation in Civita Vecchia for his rashness in running away with a wife from her husband, even though the motive was pity. While the case of the Franceschini against Pompilia was on trial, Pompilia was transported with their consent, as their prisoner, into the Monastery of the Scalette on the Lungara, with the obligation that Guido, her husband, should provide her food. There, after a little while, it was discovered that she was pregnant, and as it no longer comported with the reverence of that place that she should remain there, with the consent of Abate Paolo, who had power of attorney for his brother, Monsignor the Governor ordered that she should pass into the home of the Comparini, her parents, under security of 300 scudi to keep it as a secure prison; and he declared that Guido's obligation for her food should cease the very day she left the monastery.