Such from the beginning were the mutual purposes of that unhappy marriage. From this fact one may see how slight a pretext there is for saying that Count Guido, while making the arrangements, had tricked Pietro and his wife by giving an inventory of property with an annual income of 1700 scudi, which income was later proved to be much less, because the primary end for which the marriage was concluded might very well have been obtained by showing a much smaller income. For it is known that when this inventory was shown by Violante to Pietro Comparini, he said on seeing it: "Ho, ho, it would have been enough for me if it had been only half as much." And indeed it would have been the greatest stupidity in Pietro to have given his daughter a husband, upon the simple inventory of a foreigner and without finding out if this were true, so that the real impelling cause of the marriage had been the resources represented in the said inventory. Not even on the mere grounds of propriety and civility may Guido be reproved; because when the said inventory was produced by Pietro in the trial, the Abate Paolo Franceschini was very much surprised at it, so that he took his brother to task about it by letter, and Guido replied that he had done it at the instigation of Violante. For she desired the completion of the marriage, and, seeing Pietro irresolute, she induced Guido to give the abovesaid inventory, with some modifications, for the purpose of stimulating her husband thereto.
The marriage was finally effected, and they all went back together to the city of Arezzo. Nor were the Comparini mistreated there, as they tried to prove by the unauthoritative deposition of a servant, who had left the house in anger. One mere reading of this deposition is enough to assure one that she did this with a bad motive and at the instigation of others, as she herself has declared to various persons. This deposition shows sickeningly the distasteful prejudice with which it was conceived, and especially where she says that a little sucking lamb was made to serve as food for seven or eight persons throughout an entire week. And there are other matters alike unfit for belief. [The Comparini] were indeed treated with all consideration and decorum, as Monsignor the Bishop and the Governor of the city attest; and they are persons much better qualified to judge and much more worthy of belief than a malign and suborned servant. But you may also have the attestation of one who was serving in that household for thirteen months, during the time when the abovesaid Pietro and Violante were there, and he is able to tell many particulars of the good treatment which they received at the hands of the Franceschini.
It is quite true that disturbances of considerable importance arose in that household; but they were occasioned by the bitter tongue of Pietro and the haughtiness of Violante, his wife. For they laughed at all the proceedings of the Franceschini, and thrusting themselves forward, with pretence of superiority, they brought upon the mother of the Franceschini, and upon the rest of the family, bitter vexations, which were hidden at the time, to avoid violating the laws of hospitality. And notwithstanding all this, when Pietro and his wife decided to return to Rome, as soon as they expressed their wish, they were provided with money for the journey, and in Rome with furniture to put in order the house they had left.
As soon as Pietro and Violante arrived in Rome, a judicial notice was dispatched at the instance of Pietro, in which he declared that Francesca Pompilia was not really his daughter, and that therefore he was not bound to discharge his promise of dowry. To prove this fact, he brought the attestation of his wife Violante. In substance, she declared that for the purpose of keeping her husband's creditors from their rights, by virtue of the reversionary interest, and also for the purpose of enjoying the income of the bonds, she had feigned that she was pregnant, and then, with the aid of a midwife, that she had brought forth a daughter. This was Francesca Pompilia, who had come of a most vile parentage.
From this blameworthy act made public so suddenly throughout the entire Court, there necessarily arose in the Franceschini an intense hatred toward the authors of it. But they were able to restrain themselves from the due resentment in the hope that if Francesca Pompilia were not indeed the daughter of Pietro and Violante, as was supposed at the time of the espousal, the marriage might be annulled and they might thus purge themselves of such a blot on their reputation. Witnesses of this feeling of theirs are found in the many authorities and experts who were requested by the Franceschini to give thought to that point and to express their opinion of it. But as these did not agree, the Franceschini were unwilling then to commit themselves to so doubtful an undertaking, in the prosecution of which they would necessarily be obliged to presuppose and confess that she was not the child of the Comparini. But by such a confession they would be prejudiced in their interest in the dowry. And therefore they thought well then to pass the matter by that they might avoid exposing themselves to the danger both of losing the dowry and of being unable to nullify the marriage.
Nevertheless they opposed the notice, and obtained for Francesca Pompilia the continuance in quasi-possession of her daughtership and a decree for the transfer of the dowry bonds. But Pietro appealed from the decree, and the case was continued in the Segnatura di Giustizia. This was followed by the copious distribution of pamphlets throughout Rome, which had been printed by Pietro to the very grave injury of the honour of the Franceschini, not to say to their infamy. But the latter were able to restrain the just resentment of their irritated minds by cherishing the hope of making the court acknowledge (as did follow), no less the falsehood of their adversaries than their own truth. Supported by this hope, they subsequently bore with all patience the many insults planned against them by various cliques, and the twists and turns for hindering the transfer of the dowry bonds, the Comparini having trumped up various creditors, whether real or pretended. On account of this opposition, the Franceschini were made to feel the inconvenience and expense of that transfer. Nor have they had any benefit of the income; of which they have been able to obtain not even a two months' payment.
To such a pitch had the affairs of the two parties come, when Guido, waking up one morning, found that his wife was not in bed. As soon as he arose, he found that his jewel-box had been rifled and his wife had fled. Nor was the suspicion lacking that she had given an opiate to Guido and the entire household the preceding evening; and it was thought that this had happened at the suggestion of Pietro and Violante, as he had more than once heard threats of it. He travelled quickly along the way to Rome, and after a headlong journey he overtook his fugitive wife, in company with Canon Caponsacchi of Arezzo, at the inn of Castelnuovo. And as he was alone and unarmed, and they were armed and resolute, he saw that he was unequal to avenging that excess. He therefore thought it well to have them arrested by applying to the authorities of the said place. The court had both of the fugitives captured by the police. They were consigned to the jurisdiction of Monsignor the Governor of Rome, and were then conducted to the New Prisons.
The Fisc, indeed, makes much out of the particular that Franceschini should have avenged his insults in the act of overtaking them; but, as an adequate response, one should think of the impossibility of his carrying out his revenge because of their precaution in the matter of arms, for Franceschini had heard along the way that the fugitives were travelling armed. In proof of this, also, when his wife saw her husband she had the hardihood to thrust at his life with bare sword. For this reason it was prudent moderation to check their flight then by arresting them. And this was all the more true because the adultery of his wife had not then been proved, and possibly he had a repugnance against imbuing his hands with the blood of her whom he had often held in his arms, as long as any hope was left alive of regaining his reputation in any other way than by her murder.
But afterward there were found the mutual love-letters of the same fugitives, barefaced and immodest and preparatory to flight. And from the cross-examination of the driver it became evident that during their journey in the carriage they had done nothing else than kiss each other impurely. And from the deposition of the host at Castelnuovo, Guido found out that both of them had slept in the same chamber. Finally, from the sentence or decree of the court in condemnation of the Canon Caponsacchi to banishment to Civita Vecchia for three years, for "having carnally known Francesca," the notoriety and publicity of this adultery followed. Let any one who has the sense of honour consider in what straits and perturbations of mind poor Guido found himself, since even the very reasonless animals detest and abominate the contamination of their conjugal tie, with all the ferocity that natural instinct can suggest. They not only avenge the immodesty of their companions by the death of the adulterer, but they also avenge the outrages and injuries done to the reputation of their masters. For Elian in his Natural History tells of an elephant which avenged adultery for its master by the death of the wife and the adulterer found together in the act of adultery. And there are other examples also, as Tiraquelli cites. [Citation.]
But returning to the series of events, it must be stated that, after the imprisonment of the fugitives, Guido also came on to Rome and was deeply affected and, as it were, delirious because of the excesses of his wife. He was comforted by his good friends with the hope that this attempt at flight, taken along with the lack of decent parentage of Francesca (under supposition of which he had contracted the marriage) would facilitate the dissolution of that marriage, and in that way all the blots upon his reputation would be cancelled. Hence, with this hope he returned to his own country, leaving the management of the affair to the Abate, his brother. The Secretary of Sacred Assembly of the Council may be a witness of this; for Abate Paolo presented the matter to him and entreated him to propose, in that sacred assembly, this point of law as to the validity of the marriage then—that is, after a criminal sentence in the Tribunal of Monsignor the Governor, had been obtained.