No. 1.—Letter of the Honourable Marzi-Medici, Governor of Arezzo.
My most Illustrious and Dearly Beloved Master:
Your favoured letter of the twenty-fourth of last month has reached me, and I am exceedingly sorry for the uneasiness in which you hint you are placed by the maledictions which Signor Pietro Comparini and his wife have disseminated throughout Rome, concerning the ill-treatment they say they suffered in your home while staying in Arezzo. As your letter questions me for true information, I answer with all frankness, that both among the noble connection and in Count Guido's home they were treated with all respect and decorum. The cause of the first disturbance which sprang up between them and your mother and brothers was that Signora Violante, a few days after her arrival, presumed to domineer over the house and to keep the keys of everything, and in fact to turn out of house and home Signora Beatrice, your mother. With good reason, neither of the brothers was willing to consent thereto, and this gave occasion for the first insults and domestic broils. These afterwards increased when they saw that Signor Pietro had given over the company and conversation of the best people of the city, and had struck up acquaintance with the most vulgar. And with them he began to frequent daily all the taverns here. This cast discredit upon him, and was little for the good name of the Franceschini. Of much greater scandal were the many flights and petitions made by Guido's wife, their daughter, to Monsignor the Bishop. These were made for no other reason than that neither she nor her parents wished to stay any longer in Arezzo, but desired to return to Rome. When she had been rebuked by that most prudent Prelate, he always sent her home in his carriage. It is true that ever since the Comparini left this City until the present time the Signora has conducted herself with much modesty and prudence. From this fact every one infers that the poor child was led to such excesses by her parents, as she herself declares to everybody. Now she detests even the memory of them. Therefore, she is getting back into the good opinion of every one, and especially of those ladies of the city who had ceased having anything to do with her. Finally, these same Comparini had taken away all her jewellery from the Signora, which I forced them to restore. Altogether, such and so great are the scandals to which they have given rise before the whole city in the lapse of the few months they have stayed here, that I write you only a few of them. I assure you that with them your brothers have had the patience of martyrs. Accordingly when I saw that they had become incorrigible, and were the talk of the town, and that they might force your brothers to commit some excess against them, for the maintenance of good discipline, I availed myself of the authority vested in me by His Serene Highness, and threatened them with prison and punishment unless they behaved themselves. After these threats, which they evidently merited and which might have overtaken them, they decided to go to Rome, as they did a little later, leaving behind them in this city a very bad reputation.
As for the rest, there is now in your home an utter quietude, and the Signora lives with exemplary prudence, detesting the ill example she had shown the ladies of this city, and she confesses freely that it was so commanded by her parents. In my judgment, it is the hand of God that has freed your family from such turbid heads. This is all I can here put down, out of much else there is to say about it. Therefore rest at ease, and believe me that the discredit has been entirely their own. I need only sign myself, with all my heart, to your most illustrious self,
Your most devoted and obliged servant,
Vincenzo Marzi-Medici.
Arezzo, August 2, 1694.
To Signor Abate Paolo Franceschini, Rome.