angered the life and reputation of
his sister-in-law as well as that of his enemy is not definitely stated.
Perhaps he counted on the Duke's love for his wife and intended simply
to enrage his brother against a presuming but unfavoured lover. Whatever
the accusation the jealous husband was not at first absolutely
convinced, and he placed the matter for investigation in the hands of
his wife's brother the Count Aliffe, who spied upon Capecce and reported
that he was undoubtedly in love with the Duchess of Palliano for his
desk was filled with poems in her honour.

De Stendhal tells us vividly how Capecce was arrested on the charge of
having attempted to poison the Duke, who, "to avoid public scandal
stabbed him to death in prison." He also murdered the Duchess's
lady-in-waiting, but seems not to have had the heart to kill his wife
with his own hands. Nevertheless he believed it incumbent upon him as a
wronged husband to exercise justice upon her, and he deputed the deed to
her brother, who was nothing loth to wipe out the stain upon his family
honour.

On the night of the twenty-fifth of August, 1559, the Count Aliffe, with
his friend Leonardo del Cardine, a friar, and some soldiers, appeared at
the villa and told his sister his errand. She received her sentence with
the haughtiest disdain. Never had she been so thoroughly a duchess.

When urged to confess she protested her innocence, and assisted her
brother in bandaging her own eyes. He hesitated for a moment; perhaps if
she had appealed to his affection his heart might have given way; but
she raised the handkerchief and coolly asked: "Well, what are we about,
then?"

Thus taunted he turned the wand in the noose about her neck, and so
strangled her.

The Pope seems to have approved the act or to have been indifferent to
it; but it created a thrill of horror even at that time, for the
beautiful Duchess had been greatly loved and was believed to be
innocent.

Strange to say, the man who was to avenge her fate was he whose heritage
she had usurped. Marcantonio Colonna had used all his influence at the
Court of Spain until Philip declared war upon Pope Paul IV., and
deputed the Duke of Alva and the Spanish Army to wage the famous war of
the Campagna. Thus Marcantonio came to his own again, and the Pope, who
was near his end, in bitterness of soul signed the capitulation which
saved Rome from a second sack by the Spaniards.

News that the Pope was dying ran through