ves a peculiarly dramatic interest to
their doings, and makes the chronicle of Matarazzo more fascinating
than a novel. He seems unable to write about them without using the
language of an adoring lover.

In the affair of 1495 the Baglioni were at amity among themselves.
When they next appear upon the scene, they are engaged in deadly
feud. Cousin has set his hand to the throat of cousin, and the two
heroes of the piazza are destined to be slain by foulest treachery
of their own kin. It must be premised that besides the sons of Guido
and Ridolfo already named, the great house counted among its most
distinguished members a young Grifone, or Grifonetto, the son of
Grifone and Atalanta Baglioni. Both his father and grandfather had
died violent deaths in the prime of their youth; Galeotto, the
father of Atalanta, by poison, and Grifone by the knife at Ponte
Ricciolo in 1477. Atalanta was left a young widow with one only son,
this Grifonetto, whom Matarazzo calls 'un altro Ganimede,' and who
combined the wealth of two chief branches of the Baglioni. In 1500,
when the events about to be related took place, he was quite a
youth. Brave, rich, handsome, and married to a young wife, Zenobia
Sforza, he was the admiration of Perugia. He and his wife loved each
other dearly; and how, indeed, could it be otherwise, since 'l' uno
e l' altro sembravano doi angioli di Paradiso?' At the same time he
had fallen into the hands of bad and desperate counsellors. A
bastard of the house, Filippo da Braccio, his half-uncle, was always
at his side, instructing him not only in the accomplishments of
chivalry, but also in wild ways that brought his name into
disrepute. Another of his familiars was Carlo Barciglia Baglioni, an
unquiet spirit, who longed for more power than his poverty and
comparative obscurity allowed. With them associated Jeronimo della
Penna, a veritable ruffian, contaminated from his earliest youth
with every form of lust and violence, and capable of any crime.[1]
These three companions, instigated partly by the Lord of Camerino
and partly by their own cupidity, conceived a scheme for massacring
the families of Guido and Ridolfo at one blow. As a consequence of
this wholesale murder, Perugia would be at their discretion. Seeing
of what use Grifonetto by his wealth and name might be to them, they
did all they could to persuade him to join their conjuration. It
would appear that the bait first offered him was the sovereignty of