other, Giovan Lorenzo
Malpigli, who remained her friend throughout, thought it best for her to
retire as secretly as possible into a convent. The house chosen was that
of S. Chiara in the town of Lucca. On June 5, she assumed the habit of
S. Francis, cut her hair, changed her name from Lucrezia to Umilia, and
offered two thousand crowns of dower to this monastery. Only four days
had elapsed since her husband's assassination. But she, at all events,
was safe from immediate peril; for the Church must now be dealt with;
and the Church neither relinquished its suppliants, nor disgorged the
wealth they poured into its coffers. The Podesta, when news of this
occurrence reached him, sent at once to make inquiries. His messenger,
Ser Vincenzo Petrucci, was informed by the Abbess that Lucrezia had just
arrived and was having her hair shorn. At his request, the novice
herself appeared--'a young woman, tall and pale, dressed in a nun's
habit, with a crown upon her head.' She declared herself to be 'Madonna
Lucretiina Malpigli, widow of Lelio Buonvisi.' The priest who had
conducted her reception, affirmed that 'the gentle lady, immediately
upon her husband's death, conceived this good prompting of the spirit,
and obeyed it on the spot.'

For the moment, Lucrezia, whom in future we must call Sister Umilia, had
to be left unmolested. The judges returned to the interrogation of their
prisoners. Vincenzo del Zoppo and his wife Pollonia, in whose house the
lovers used to meet, were tortured; but nothing that implied a criminal
correspondence transpired from their evidence. Then the unlucky Carli
was once more put to the strappado. He fell into a deep swoon, and was
with difficulty brought to life again. Next his son, a youth of sixteen
years, was racked with similar results. On June 7, they resolved to have
another try at Vincenzo da Coreglia. This soldier had been kept on low
diet in his prison during the last week, and was therefore ripe,
according to the judicial theories of those times, for salutary
torments. Having been strung up by his hands, he was jerked and shaken
in the customary fashion, until he declared his willingness to make a
full confession. He had been informed, he said, that Massimiliano
intended to assassinate Lelio by means of his three bravi, Pietro da
Castelnuovo, Ottavio da Trapani, and Niccolo da Pariana. He engaged to
stand by and cover the retreat of these men. It was Carli, and not
Massimiliano, who had made