I have left it for the last to discuss and refute what the said Writer pretends concerning Abate Paolo. But if he had to speak the truth, he might reasonably affirm that the Abate had been the whole foundation of this scandal. For he had urged Guido on to the murders, and he had woven the whole plot, inasmuch as it was he who, from the beginning, wished to attain, by dint of industry and trickiness, the marriage of the said Francesca Pompilia. It was he who had sustained the suits, both civil and criminal, and he who, under the name of a grandee, and by boasting of their word of honour, had tried to extort a judgment by means of fine insinuations, by subterfuge, and by trickery; which was not right. It was he, who was very sensible of having been proved to be the man of guile, who had been deluded by his own trick. Therefore this Writer had good reason to say that the faces of others served the Abate as mirrors by which to read his own evil courses, and not the lost honour of his brother.
I forbear to respond to what the Anonymous Writer has tried to have believed to the praise of Abate Paolo Franceschini, to excite greatly our pity; since the intention of the author of the present response is no other than to make clear the falsity of the suppositions against the honour of the poor wife and against the Comparini, and to serve the cause of justice. And he leaves the judgment of it to those who have full knowledge of it. From the same consideration I pass over responding to many another impropriety, which has been advanced uselessly and without any point by the said Writer.
And I close my response with the example of Samson, alleged by him. When he saw himself exposed to the public scoffs of the people, he gave a shove to the pillars of the palace, causing it to fall that he might die with the rest under its ruins, and might cease to be longer the scorn of that people. So lest the said Franceschini may be ridiculed for his tricks, it is fitting that he and his companions pay the penalty merited by their crime. For these are pernicious to the State and to that peace and security which litigants in the Courts of Rome ought to enjoy, if we would maintain what the vigilance of the Supreme Pontiff Alexander VII., and his successors, has provided. For they have published a Constitution as to that, and with it Banns, successively promulgated. The sacred order of such laws should be observed all the more willingly, inasmuch as Guido had chosen the judicial way to vengeance, and the appeals made to the Supreme Pontiff, who is most eager to do what is just, were sent back to his judges. Nor could Guido grieve for this without some pretended injury, as is evident; hence the Anonymous Writer wished to ascribe it to the aggravation by which the anger of Franceschini had been exasperated. This clearly shows with what intent he had broken into such detestable excesses.
[[File-title of Pamphlet 16.]]
By the Most Illustrious and Most
Reverend Lord Governor of the
City in Criminal Cases:
ROMAN MURDER-CASE.
For Count Guido Franceschini and his Associates,
Prisoners, against the Fisc.
Reply as to law, by the Honourable Advocate
of the Poor.