was killed by Amilcare Orsini, a bastard of the Count of
Pitigliano, in a brawl at night. The young men met, Cenci attended by
three armed servants, Orsini by two. A single pass of rapiers, in which
Rocco was pierced through the right eye, ended the affair.

[Footnote 197: He was afterwards forced, in 1590, to disgorge a second
sum of 25,000 crowns.]

[Footnote 198: Prospero Farinaccio, the advocate of Cenci's murderers,
was himself tried for this crime (Bertolotti, _op. cit._ p. 104). The
curious story of the Spanish soldiers alluded to above will be found in
Mutinelli, _Stor. Arc_. vol. i. p. 121. See the same work of Mutinelli,
vol. i. p. 48, for a similar prosecution in Rome 1566; and vol. iv. p.
152 for another involving some hundred people of condition at Milan in
1679. Compare what Sarpi says about the Florentine merchants and Roman
_cinedi_ in his _Letters_, date 1609, vol. i. p. 288. For the manners of
the Neapolitans, _Vita di D. Pietro di Toledo (Arch. Stor. It_., vol.
ix. p. 23). The most scandalous example of such vice in high quarters
was given by Pietro de'Medici, one of Duke Cosimo's sons. _Galluzzi_,
vol. v. p. 174, and Litta's pedigree of the Medici. The _Bandi
Lucchesi_, ed. S. Bonghi, Bologna, 1863, pp. 377 381, treats the subject
in full; and it has been discussed by Canello, _op. cit._ pp. 20-23. The
_Artes Jesuiticae_, op. cit. Articles 62, 120, illustrate casuistry on
the topic.]

In addition to his vindictive persecution of his worthless eldest son,
Francesco Cenci behaved with undue strictness to the younger, allowing
them less money than befitted their station and treating them with a
severity which contrasted comically with his own loose habits. The
legend which represents him as an exceptionally wicked man, cruel for
cruelty's sake and devoid of natural affection, receives some color from
the facts. Yet these alone are not sufficient to justify its darker
hues, while they amply prove that Francesco's children gave him
grievous provocation. The discontents of this ill-governed family
matured into rebellion; and in 1598 it was decided on removing the old
Cenci by murder. His second wife Lucrezia, his eldest son Giacomo, his
daughter Beatrice, and the youngest son Bernardo, were implicated in the
crime. It was successfully carried out at the Rocca di Petrella in the
Abruzzi on the night of September 9. Two hired _bravi_, Olimpio Calvetti
and Marzio Catalani, entered the old man's bedroom, dro