who and what is this Benfaremo, and what the source of
his information.

Matters remaining thus, and the affair appearing in danger of being
forgotten, Caracciolo goes before the Senate on March 16 and implores
permission to deal with it himself. This permission is denied him, the
Doge conceiving that the matter will best be dealt with by the Senate,
and Caracciolo is ordered back to his post at Gradisca. Thence he writes
to the Senate on March 30 that he is certain his wife is in the citadel
of Forli.

After this Sanuto does not mention the matter again until December of
1503--nearly three years later--when we gather that, under pressure
of constant letters from the husband, the Venetian ambassador at the
Vatican makes so vigorous a stir that the lady is at last delivered up,
and goes for the time being into a convent. But we are not told where or
how she is found, nor where the convent in which she seeks shelter. That
is Sanuto's first important omission.

And now an odd light is thrown suddenly upon the whole affair, and
it begins to look as if the lady had been no unwilling victim of an
abduction, but, rather, a party to an elopement. She displays a positive
reluctance to return to her husband; she is afraid to do so--"in
fear for her very life"--and she implores the Senate to obtain from
Caracciolo some security for her, or else to grant her permission to
withdraw permanently to a convent.

The Senate summons the husband, and represents the case to him. He
assures the Senate that he has forgiven his wife, believing her to be
innocent. This, however, does not suffice to allay her uneasiness--or
her reluctance--for on January 4, 1504, Sanuto tells us that the Senate
has received a letter of thanks from her in which she relates her
misfortunes, and in which again she begs that her husband be compelled
to pledge security to treat her well ("darli buona vita") or else that
she should be allowed to return to her mother. Of the nature of the
misfortunes which he tells us she related in her letter, Sanuto says
nothing. That is his second important omission.

The last mention of the subject in Sanuto relates to her restoration to
her husband. He tells us that Caracciolo received her with great joy;
but he is silent on the score of the lady's emotions on that occasion.

There you have all that is known of Dorotea Caracciolo's abduction,
which later writers--including Bembo in his Historiae--have positively
assigned t