dagger, without a moment's
hesitation, he stepped quickly to the window and would have slain his
brother with a single mighty blow, but Francesca, throwing herself
before him, sheathed the dagger in her heart and fell dead at his feet.
Gianciotto, still burning for revenge, and unmoved by his first bloody
deed, again struck at Paolo, and this time he slew him. Then, following
the words of the old story, "leaving them both dead, he hastily went his
way and betook him to his wonted affairs; and the next morning the two
lovers, with many tears, were buried together in one grave."

There is a terrible pathos about this story which has made it live
during all these years. Through every line of it runs a commentary upon
the barbarous customs of the time, which made such a situation possible,
and its climax was so inevitable and so necessary, according to all the
laws of nature, that we of a later day are inclined to shed a
sympathetic tear and heave a sigh of regret.

Dante has placed the two lovers in his _Inferno_ for their sin, but in
the fifth canto, where he first sees them, he is moved to such pity for
their unhappy lot that he exclaims:

"...Francesca, i tuoi martiri
A lagrimar mi fanno tristo e pio!"

[Thine agonies, Francesca, sad and compassionate to weeping make me!]
And before she finished telling her tragic story, he swooned away as if
he had been dying, "and fell, even as a dead body falls."

In a more recent time this story has been told by Silvio Pellico, who
wrote a tragedy on the subject, and by Leigh Hunt in a poem. In England,
Boker wrote a successful tragedy upon it many years ago, and more
recently Stephen Phillips, in his _Paolo and Francesca_, has produced a
dramatic poem of rare merit. Most recently of all, Gabriele d'Annunzio,
the well-known Italian poet and novelist, has made this story the
subject of a powerful drama, which was interpreted in a most wonderful
way by the great Italian actress, Eleonora Duse. To show that others
than poets have been inspired by Francesca's unhappy history, it may be
of interest to record the fact that noted pictures illustrating the
story have been painted by many of the greatest artists.

To return to that early period in Italian history, so filled with strife
and discord, it should be said that in spite of this constant warfare,
the richer princes, especially in the north of Italy, lived in a most
sumptuous manner, and prepared the way, to a certain