[40]. The Aggravating Circumstances. The prosecution makes much of the attendant criminal circumstances which surrounded the main crime of murder. These are first, the assembling of a band of armed men, constituting the crime of rebellion; second, the murder of a prisoner while under the care of the courts, Pompilia being technically a prisoner detained in the Process of Flight; third, the assault upon opponents in a pending lawsuit, the Comparini then being at law with Guido; fourth, the violent breaking into a private home; fifth, the commission of crime under cover of disguise; sixth, the use of certain types of barbarous weapon, the very possession of which was a capital offence. The first three of these were laesa majestas, criminal insult to the majesty of the law.
[41]. San Lorenzo in Lucina. This church in the heart of Rome just off the Corso, and not very far from the home of the Comparini at the corner of Via Vittoria, and Strada Paolina, was evidently the parish church of the Comparini, as both the birth and death of Pompilia are entered in its register.
[42]. Castelnuovo. A village of but a few houses, fifteen miles north of Rome. The inn and posthouse where Pompilia and Caponsacchi were overtaken by Guido thus became one of the most important scenes in the tragedy.
[43]. Torture of the Vigil. Guido and his companions were tortured thus, to get fuller testimony from them. This torture consisted originally in merely keeping the victim awake until he told his crime. Later on his confession was accelerated by auxiliary devices for intensifying the suffering of the subject.
[44]. Browning has taken the peroration used in the first lawyer's monologue, R. B. VIII. 1637-1736, directly from the peroration of Arcangeli in [Pamphlet 8], p. [130].
[45]. The description of the execution as given in R. B. XII. 113 et seq., is taken from the additional Italian pamphlet, pp. [265]-[6].
[46]. In like manner R. B. VIII. 587-683, is closely drawn from the Book, pp. [153]-[4], with an interpolation in lines 640-57 from page [226]. More than fifty of such word to word borrowings from the Book are made in this monologue.
Minute of the Definite Order of Events in the Case
July 17, 1680. Pompilia born. ([Note 27]).
December (?) 1693. Pompilia married to Guido Franceschini.