heir crime. They passed
some time there in tranquillity. But Divine Justice, which would not
allow so atrocious a wickedness to remain hid and unpunished, so ordered
it that the Court of Naples, to which the account of the death of Cenci
was forwarded, began to entertain doubts concerning the mode by which he
came by it, and sent a commissary to examine the body and to take
informations....

The Pope, after having seen all the examinations and the entire
confessions, ordered that the delinquents should be drawn through the
streets at the tails of horses and afterward decapitated.

Many cardinals and priests interested themselves, and entreated that at
least they might be allowed to draw up their defence. The Pope at first
refused to comply, replying with severity, and asking these intercessors
what defence had been allowed to Francesco when he had been so
barbarously murdered in his sleep....

The sentence was executed the morning of Saturday the 11th of May. The
messengers charged with the communication of the sentence, and the
Brothers of the Consorteria, were sent to the several prisons at five
the preceding night; and at six the sentence of death was communicated
to the unhappy brothers while they were placidly sleeping. Beatrice, on
hearing it broke into a piercing lamentation, and into passionate
gesture, exclaiming, "How is it possible, O my God, that I must so
suddenly die?" Lucretia, as prepared and already resigned to her fate,
listened without terror to the reading of this terrible sentence, and
with gentle exhortations induced her daughter-in-law to enter the chapel
with her; and the latter, whatever excess she might have indulged in on
the first intimation of a speedy death, so much the more now
courageously supported herself, and gave every one certain proofs of a
humble resignation. Having requested that a notary might be allowed to
come to her, and her request being granted, she made her will, in which
she left 15,000 crowns to the Fraternity of the Sacre Stimmate, and
willed that all her dowry should be employed in portioning for marriage
fifty maidens; and Lucretia, imitating the example of her
daughter-in-law, ordered that she should be buried in the church of S.
Gregorio at Monte Celio, with 32,000 crowns for charitable uses, and
made other legacies; after which they passed some time in the
Consorteria, reciting psalms and litanies and other prayers with so much
fervour that it well appeared that