e'Medici, the only child of Duke Francesco,
became Queen of France.

[Footnote 221: See above, pp. 361-369.]

[Footnote 222: Galluzzi, vol. iii. p. 5, says that she died of a putrid
fever. Litta again inclines to the probability of poison. But this must
counted among the doubtful cases.]

[Footnote 223: See Galluzzi, _op. cit._ vol. iv. pp. 195-197, for the
account of a transaction which throws curious light upon the customs of
the age. It was only stipulated that the trial should not take place
upon a Friday. Otherwise, the highest ecclesiastics gave it their full
approval.] The history of her amours with Concini forms an episode in
French annals.

If now we eliminate the deaths of Don Garcia, Cardinal Giovanni, Duke
Francesco, Bianca Capello, and Lucrezia de'Medici, as doubtful, there
will still remain the murders of Cardinal Ippolito, Duke Alessandro,
Lorenzino de'Medici, Pietro Bonaventuri (Bianca's husband), Pellegrina
Bentivoglio (Bianca's daughter), Eleonora di Toledo, Francesco Casi
(Eleonora's lover), the Duchess of Bracciano, Troilo Orsini (lover of
this Duchess), Felice Peretti (husband of Vittoria Accoramboni), and
Vittoria Accoramboni--eleven murders, all occurring between 1535 and
1585, an exact half century, in a single princely family and its
immediate connections. The majority of these crimes, that is to say
seven, had their origin in lawless passion.[224]

[Footnote 224: I have told the stories in this chapter as dryly as I
could. Yet it would be interesting to analyze the fascination they
exercised over our Elizabethan playwrights, some of whose Italian
tragedies handle the material with penetrative imagination. For the
English mode of interpreting southern passions see my _Italian Byways_,
pp. 142 _et seq._, and a brilliant essay in Vernon Lee's _Euphorion_.]

CHAPTER VI.

SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC MORALS: PART II.

Tales illustrative of Bravi and Banditti--Cecco Bibboni--Ambrogio
Tremazzi--Lodovico dall'Armi--Brigandage--Piracy--Plagues--The
Plagues of Milan, Venice, Piedmont--Persecution of the
Untori--Moral State of the Proletariate--Witchcraft--Its Italian
Features--History of Giacomo Centini.

The stories related in the foregoing chapter abundantly demonstrate the
close connection between the aristocracy and their accomplices--bravos
and bandits. But it still remains to consider this connection from the
professional murderer's own point of view. And for th