.

Pompilia and Caponsacchi answered all the questions addressed to them
simply and firmly; and though their statements did not always coincide,
these were calculated on the whole to create a moral conviction of their
innocence; the facts on which they disagreed being of little weight. But
moral conviction was not legal proof; the question of false testimony
does not seem to have been even raised; and the Court found itself in a
dilemma, which it acknowledged in the following way: it was decreed that
for his complicity in "the flight and deviation of Francesca Comparini,"
and too great intimacy with her, Caponsacchi should be banished for
three years to Civita Vecchia; and that Pompilia, on her side, should be
relegated, for the time being, to a convent. That is to say: the
prisoners were pronounced guilty; and a merely nominal punishment was
inflicted upon them.

The records of this trial contain almost everything of biographical or
even dramatic interest in the original book. They are, so far as they
go, the complete history of the case; and the result of the trial,
ambiguous as it was, supplied the only argument on which an even formal
defence of the subsequent murder could be based. The substance of these
records appears in full in Mr. Browning's work; and his readers can
judge for themselves whether the letters which were intended to
substantiate Pompilia's guilt, could, even if she had possessed the
power of writing, have been written by a woman so young and so
uncultured as herself. They will also see that the Count's plot against
his wife was still more deeply laid than the above-mentioned
circumstances attest.

Count Guido was of course not satisfied. He wanted a divorce; and he
continued to sue for it by means of his brother, the Abate Paul, then
residing in Rome; but before long he received news which was destined to
change his plans. Pompilia was about to become a mother; and in
consideration of her state, she had been removed from the convent to her
paternal home, where she was still to be ostensibly a prisoner. The
Comparini then occupied a small villa outside one of the city gates. A
few months later, in this secluded spot, the Countess Franceschini gave
birth to a son, whom her parents lost no time in conveying to a place of
concealment and safety. The murder took place a fortnight after this
event. I give the rest of the story in an almost literal translation
from a contemporary narrative, which was