them. The embassador insisting on the
privileges which those of his function claimed from the law of nations,
refused to deliver them up. In the interim Stradella was cured of his
wounds, and the Marquis de Villars, to make short of the question about
privilege, and the rights of embassadors, suffered the assassins to
escape.

"From this time, finding himself disappointed of his revenge, but not
the least abated in his ardour to accomplish it, this implacable
Venetian contented himself with setting spies to watch the motions of
Stradella. A year was elapsed after the cure of his wounds; no fresh
disturbance had been given to him, and he thought himself secure from
any further attempts on his life. The duchess regent, who was concerned
for the honour of her sex, and the happiness of two persons who had
suffered so much, and seemed to have been born for each other, joined
the hands of Stradella and his beloved Hortensia, and they were married.

"After the ceremony Stradella and his wife having a desire to visit the
port of Genoa, went thither with a resolution to return to Turin: the
assassins having intelligence of their departure, followed them close at
their heels. Stradella and his wife, it is true, reached Genoa, but the
morning after their arrival these three execrable villains rushed into
their chamber, and stabbed each to the heart. The murderers had taken
care to secure a bark which lay in the port; to this they retreated, and
made their escape from justice, and were never heard of more.

"Mr. Berenclow says that when the report of Stradella's assassination
reached the ears of Purcell, and he was informed jealousy was the motive
to it, he lamented his fate exceedingly; and, in regard of his great
merit as a musician, said he could have forgiven him any injury in that
kind; which, adds the relater, 'those who remember how lovingly Mr.
Purcell lived with his wife, or rather what a loving wife she proved to
him, may understand without farther explication.'"

CHAPTER VII.

GIOVANNI AND LUCREZIA PALESTRINA

Almost exactly a century before Purcell died in England, there died in
Italy, at Rome, a composer who has made his birthplace immortal, though
his own name has almost been lost to public recognition in the process.
That is the man whose name in English would be John Peter Lewis, or as
his father called him, Giovanni Pier Luigi, who was born at Palestrina,
at some date between 1514 and 1530, and who d