s race. He died, however, poisoned by his own
brother, Marcantonio, in 1599.[203] Marcantonio was arrested on
suspicion and imprisoned in Torre di Nona, where he confessed his guilt.
He was shortly afterwards beheaded on the little square before the
bridge of S. Angelo.

_Vittoria Accoramboni_.

Next in order, I shall take the story of Vittoria Accoramboni. It has
been often told already,[204] yet it combines so many points of interest
bearing upon the social life of the Italians in my period, that to omit
it would be to sacrifice the most important document bearing on the
matter of this chapter. As the Signora di Monza and Lucrezia Buonvisi
help us to understand the secret history of families and convents, so
Vittoria Accoramboni introduces us to that of courts.

[Footnote 203: This fratricide, concurring with the matricide of S.
Croce, contributed to the rigor with which the Cenci parricide was
punished in that year of Roman crimes.]

[Footnote 204: _The White Devil_, a tragedy by John Webster, London,
1612; De Stendhal's _Chroniques et Nouvelles_, Vittoria Accoramboni,
Paris 1855; _Vittoria Accoramboni_, D. Gnoli, Firenze, 1870; _Italian
Byways_, by J.A. Symonds, London, 1883. The greater part of follows
above is extracted from my _Italian Byways_.]

It will be noticed how the same machinery of lawless nobles and
profligate _bravi_, acting in concert with bold women, is brought into
play throughout the tragedies which form the substance of our present
inquiry.

Vittoria was born in 1557, of a noble but impoverished family, at Gubbio
among the hills of Umbria. Her biographers are rapturous in their
praises of her beauty, grace, and exceeding charm of manner. Not only
was her person most lovely, but her mind shone at first with all the
amiable luster of a modest, innocent, and winning youth. Her father,
Claudio Accoramboni, removed to Rome, where his numerous children were
brought up under the care of their mother, Tarquinia, an ambitious
woman, bent on rehabilitating the decayed honors of her house. Here
Vittoria in early girlhood soon became the fashion. She exercised an
irresistible influence over all who saw her, and many were the offers of
marriage she refused. At length a suitor appeared whose condition and
connection with the Roman ecclesiastical nobility rendered him
acceptable in the eyes of the Accoramboni. Francesco Peretti was
welcomed as the successful candidate for Vittoria's hand. His mother