inexpressibly pathetic.
Beatrice Cenci appears to have been one of those rare persons in whom
energy and gentleness dwell together without destroying one another: her
nature was simple and profound. The crimes and miseries in which she was
an actor and a sufferer are as the mask and mantle in which
circumstances clothed her for her impersonation on the scene of the
world.

The Cenci Palace is of great extent; and, though in part modernized,
there yet remains a vast and gloomy pile of feudal architecture in the
same state as during the dreadful scenes which are the subject of this
tragedy. The palace is situated in an obscure corner of Rome, near the
quarter of the Jews; and from the upper windows you see the immense
ruins of Mount Palatine, half hidden under their profuse overgrowth of
trees. There is a court in one part of the palace (perhaps that in which
Cenci built the chapel to St. Thomas) supported by granite columns, and
adorned with antique friezes of fine workmanship, and built up,
according to the ancient Italian fashion, with balcony over balcony
of open work. One of the gateways of the palace, formed of immense
stones, and leading through a passage dark and lofty, and opening into
gloomy subterranean chambers, struck me particularly....

[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF BEATRICE CENCI.
_Guido Reni._]

The most wicked life which the Roman nobleman, Francesco Cenci, led in
this world not only occasioned his own ruin and death, but also that of
many others and brought down the destruction of his house. Concerning
his religion, it is sufficient to state that he never frequented any
church; and, although he caused a small chapel, dedicated to the Apostle
St. Thomas, to be built in the court of his palace, his intention in so
doing was to bury there all his children, whom he cruelly hated. He
cursed [his sons] and often also struck and ill-treated his daughters.
The eldest of these, being unable any longer to support the cruelty of
her father, exposed her miserable condition to the Pope and supplicated
him either to marry her according to his choice, or shut her up in a
monastery, that by any means she might be liberated from the cruel
oppression of her parent. Her prayer was heard, and the Pope, in pity to
her unhappiness, bestowed her in marriage to Signore Carlo Gabrielli,
one of the first gentlemen of the city of Gubbio, and obliged Francesco
to give her a fitting dowry of some thousand crowns.

France