The Cenci

A >> Alexandre Dumas, Pere >> The Cenci


Clement VIII then showed himself as patient as he had previously been
hasty, and heard the argument of Farinacci, who pleaded that Francesco
Cenci had lost all the rights of a father from, the day that he violated
his daughter. In support of his contention he wished to put in the
memorial sent by Beatrice to His Holiness, petitioning him, as her
sister had done, to remove her from the paternal roof and place her in
a convent. Unfortunately, this petition had disappeared, and
notwithstanding the minutest search among the papal documents, no trace
of it could be found.

The pope had all the pleadings collected, and dismissed the advocates,
who then retired, excepting d'Altieri, who knelt before him, saying--

"Most Holy Father, I humbly ask pardon for appearing before you in
this case, but I had no choice in the matter, being the advocate of the
poor."

The pope kindly raised him, saying:

"Go; we are not surprised at your conduct, but at that of others, who
protect and defend criminals."

As the pope took a great interest in this case, he sat up all night over
it, studying it with Cardinal di San Marcello, a man of much acumen and
great experience in criminal cases. Then, having summed it up, he sent
a draft of his opinion to the advocates, who read it with great
satisfaction, and entertained hopes that the lives of the convicted
persons would be spared; for the evidence all went to prove that even
if the children had taken their father's life, all the provocation came
from him, and that Beatrice in particular had been dragged into the part
she had taken in this crime by the tyranny, wickedness, and brutality
of her father. Under the influence of these considerations the pope
mitigated the severity of their prison life, and even allowed the
prisoners to hope that their lives would not be forfeited.

Amidst the general feeling of relief afforded to the public by these
favours, another tragical event changed the papal mind and frustrated
all his humane intentions. This was the atrocious murder of the Marchese
di Santa Croce, a man seventy years of age, by his son Paolo, who
stabbed him with a dagger in fifteen or twenty places, because the
father would not promise to make Paolo his sole heir. The murderer fled
and escaped.

Clement VIII was horror-stricken at the increasing frequency of this
crime of parricide: for the moment, however, he was unable to take
action, having to go to Monte Cavallo to consecrate a cardinal titular
bishop in the church of Santa Maria degli Angeli; but the day following,
on Friday the 10th of September 1599, at eight o'clock in the morning,
he summoned Monsignor Taverna, governor of Rome, and said to him--

"Monsignor, we place in your hands the Cenci case, that you may carry
out the sentence as speedily as possible."

On his return to his palace, after leaving His Holiness, the governor
convened a meeting of all the criminal judges in the city, the result of
the council being that all the Cenci were condemned to death.

The final sentence was immediately known; and as this unhappy family
inspired a constantly increasing interest, many cardinals spent the
whole of the night either on horseback or in their carriages, making
interest that, at least so far as the women were concerned, they should
be put to death privately and in the prison, and that a free pardon
should be granted to Bernardo, a poor lad only fifteen years of age,
who, guiltless of any participation in the crime, yet found himself
involved in its consequences. The one who interested himself most in
the case was Cardinal Sforza, who nevertheless failed to elicit a
single gleam of hope, so obdurate was His Holiness. At length Farinacci,
working on the papal conscience, succeeded, after long and urgent
entreaties, and only at the last moment, that the life of Bernardo
should be spared.

From Friday evening the members of the brotherhood of the Conforteria
had gathered at the two prisons of Corte Savella and Tordinona. The
preparations for the closing scene of the tragedy had occupied workmen
on the bridge of Sant' Angelo all night; and it was not till five
o'clock in the morning that the registrar entered the cell of Lucrezia
and Beatrice to read their sentences to them.

Both were sleeping, calm in the belief of a reprieve. The registrar woke
them, and told them that, judged by man, they must now prepare to appear
before God.

Beatrice was at first thunderstruck: she seemed paralysed and
speechless; then she rose from bed, and staggering as if intoxicated,
recovered her speech, uttering despairing cries. Lucrezia heard the
tidings with more firmness, and proceeded to dress herself to go to the
chapel, exhorting Beatrice to resignation; but she, raving, wrung her,
hands and struck her head against the wall, shrieking, "To die! to die!
Am I to die unprepared, on a scaffold! on a gibbet! My God! my God!"
This fit led to a terrible paroxysm, after which the exhaustion of her
body enabled her mind to recover its balance, and from that moment she
became an angel of humility and an example of resignation.

Her first request was for a notary to make her will. This was
immediately complied with, and on his arrival she dictated its
provisions with much calmness and precision. Its last clause desired her
interment in the church of San Pietro in Montorio, for which she always
had a strong attachment, as it commanded a view of her father's palace.
She bequeathed five hundred crowns to the nuns of the order of the
Stigmata, and ordered that her dowry, amounting to fifteen thousand
crowns, should be distributed in marriage portions to fifty poor girls.
She selected the foot of the high altar as the place where she wished to
be buried, over which hung the beautiful picture of the Transfiguration,
so often admired by her during her life.

Following her example, Lucrezia in her turn, disposed of her property:
she desired to be buried in the church of San Giorgio di Velobre, and
left thirty-two thousand crowns to charities, with other pious legacies.
Having settled their earthly affairs, they joined in prayer, reciting
psalms, litanies, and prayers far the dying.

At eight o'clock they confessed, heard mass, and received the
sacraments; after which Beatrice, observing to her stepmother that the
rich dresses they wore were out of place on a scaffold, ordered two to
be made in nun's fashion--that is to say, gathered at the neck, with
long wide sleeves. That for Lucrezia was made of black cotton stuff,
Beatrice's of taffetas. In addition she had a small black turban made to
place on her head. These dresses, with cords for girdles, were brought
them; they were placed on a chair, while the women continued to pray.

The time appointed being near at hand, they were informed that their
last moment was approaching. Then Beatrice, who was still on her knees,
rose with a tranquil and almost joyful countenance. "Mother," said she,
"the moment of our suffering is impending; I think we had better dress
in these clothes, and help one another at our toilet for the last time."
They then put on the dresses provided, girt themselves with the cords;
Beatrice placed her turban on her head, and they awaited the last
summons.

In the meantime, Giacomo and Bernardo, whose sentences had been read
to them, awaited also the moment of their death. About ten o'clock the
members of the Confraternity of Mercy, a Florentine order, arrived at
the prison of Tordinona, and halted on the threshold with the crucifix,
awaiting the appearance of the unhappy youths. Here a serious accident
had nearly happened. As many persons were at the prison windows to
see the prisoners come out, someone accidentally threw down a large
flower-pot full of earth, which fell into the street and narrowly missed
one of the Confraternity who was amongst the torch-bearers just before
the crucifix. It passed so close to the torch as to extinguish the flame
in its descent.

At this moment the gates opened, and Giacomo appeared first on the
threshold. He fell on his knees, adoring the holy crucifix with great
devotion. He was completely covered with a large mourning cloak, under
which his bare breast was prepared to be torn by the red-hot pincers of
the executioner, which were lying ready in a chafing-dish fixed to the
cart. Having ascended the vehicle, in which the executioner placed him
so as more readily to perform this office, Bernardo came out, and was
thus addressed on his appearance by the fiscal of Rome--

"Signor Bernardo Cenci, in the name of our blessed Redeemer, our Holy
Father the Pope spares your life; with the sole condition that you
accompany your relatives to the scaffold and to their death, and never
forget to pray for those with whom you were condemned to die."

At this unexpected intelligence, a loud murmur of joy spread among the
crowd, and the members of the Confraternity immediately untied the small
mask which covered the youth's eyes; for, owing to his tender age, it
had been thought proper to conceal the scaffold from his sight.

Then the executioner; having disposed of Giacomo, came down from the
cart to take Bernardo; whose pardon being formally communicated to
him, he took off his handcuffs, and placed him alongside his brother,
covering him up with a magnificent cloak embroidered with gold, for
the neck and shoulders of the poor lad had been already bared, as a
preliminary to his decapitation. People were surprised to see such a
rich cloak in the possession of the executioner, but were told that it
was the one given by Beatrice to Marzio to pledge him to the murder
of her father, which fell to the executioner as a perquisite after the
execution of the assassin. The sight of the great assemblage of people
produced such an effect upon the boy that he fainted.

The procession then proceeded to the prison of Corte Savella, marching
to the sound of funeral chants. At its gates the sacred crucifix halted
for the women to join: they soon appeared, fell on their knees, and
worshipped the holy symbol as the others had done. The march to the
scaffold was then resumed.

The two female prisoners followed the last row of penitents in single
file, veiled to the waist, with the distinction that Lucrezia, as a
widow, wore a black veil and high-heeled slippers of the same hue,
with bows of ribbon, as was the fashion; whilst Beatrice, as a young
unmarried girl, wore a silk flat cap to match her corsage, with a plush
hood, which fell over her shoulders and covered her violet frock;
white slippers with high heels, ornamented with gold rosettes and
cherry-coloured fringe. The arms of both were untrammelled, except for
a thin slack cord which left their hands free to carry a crucifix and a
handkerchief.

During the night a lofty scaffold had been erected on the bridge of
Sant' Angelo, and the plank and block were placed thereon. Above the
block was hung, from a large cross beam, a ponderous axe, which, guided
by two grooves, fell with its whole weight at the touch of a spring.

In this formation the procession wended its way towards the bridge of
Sant' Angelo. Lucrezia, the more broken down of the two, wept bitterly;
but Beatrice was firm and unmoved. On arriving at the open space before
the bridge, the women were led into a chapel, where they were shortly
joined by Giacomo and Bernardo; they remained together for a few
moments, when the brothers were led away to the scaffold, although one
was to be executed last, and the other was pardoned. But when they
had mounted the platform, Bernardo fainted a second time; and as the
executioner was approaching to his assistance, some of the crowd,
supposing that his object was to decapitate him, cried loudly, "He is
pardoned!" The executioner reassured them by seating Bernardo near the
block, Giacomo kneeling on the other side.

Then the executioner descended, entered the chapel, and reappeared
leading Lucrezia, who was the first to suffer. At the foot of the
scaffold he tied her hands behind her back, tore open the top of her
corsage so as to uncover her shoulders, gave her the crucifix to
kiss, and led her to the step ladder, which she ascended with great
difficulty, on account of her extreme stoutness; then, on her reaching
the platform, he removed the veil which covered her head. On this
exposure of her features to the immense crowd, Lucrezia shuddered
from head to foot; then, her eyes full of tears, she cried with a loud
voice--

"O my God, have mercy upon me; and do you, brethren, pray for my soul!"

Having uttered these words, not knowing what was required of her, she
turned to Alessandro, the chief executioner, and asked what she was to
do; he told her to bestride the plank and lie prone upon it; which she
did with great trouble and timidity; but as she was unable, on account
of the fullness of her bust, to lay her neck upon the block, this had to
be raised by placing a billet of wood underneath it; all this time the
poor woman, suffering even more from shame than from fear, was kept in
suspense; at length, when she was properly adjusted, the executioner
touched the spring, the knife fell, and the decapitated head, falling on
the platform of the scaffold, bounded two or three times in the air,
to the general horror; the executioner then seized it, showed it to the
multitude, and wrapping it in black taffetas, placed it with the body on
a bier at the foot of the scaffold.

Whilst arrangements were being made for the decapitation of Beatrice,
several stands, full of spectators, broke down; some people were killed
by this accident, and still more lamed and injured.

The machine being now rearranged and washed, the executioner returned
to the chapel to take charge of Beatrice, who, on seeing the sacred
crucifix, said some prayers for her soul, and on her hands being tied,
cried out, "God grant that you be binding this body unto corruption, and
loosing this soul unto life eternal!" She then arose, proceeded to the
platform, where she devoutly kissed the stigmata; then, leaving her
slippers at the foot of the scaffold, she nimbly ascended the ladder,
and instructed beforehand, promptly lay down on the plank, without
exposing her naked shoulders. But her precautions to shorten the
bitterness of death were of no avail, for the pope, knowing her
impetuous disposition, and fearing lest she might be led into the
commission of some sin between absolution and death, had given orders
that the moment Beatrice was extended on the scaffold a signal gun
should be fired from the castle of Sant' Angelo; which was done, to the
great astonishment of everybody, including Beatrice herself, who,
not expecting this explosion, raised herself almost upright; the pope
meanwhile, who was praying at Monte Cavallo, gave her absolution 'in
articulo mortis'. About five minutes thus passed, during which the
sufferer waited with her head replaced on the block; at length, when the
executioner judged that the absolution had been given, he released the
spring, and the axe fell.

A gruesome sight was then afforded: whilst the head bounced away on one
side of the block, on the other the body rose erect, as if about to step
backwards; the executioner exhibited the head, and disposed of it and
the body as before. He wished to place Beatrice's body with that of her
stepmother, but the brotherhood of Mercy took it out of his hands, and
as one of them was attempting to lay it on the bier, it slipped from
him and fell from the scaffold to the ground below; the dress being
partially torn from the body, which was so besmeared with dust and blood
that much time was occupied in washing it. Poor Bernardo was so overcome
by this horrible scene that he swooned away for the third time, and it
was necessary to revive him with stimulants to witness the fate of his
elder brother.

The turn of Giacomo at length arrived: he had witnessed the death of
his stepmother and his sister, and his clothes were covered with their
blood; the executioner approached him and tore off his cloak, exposing
his bare breast covered with the wounds caused by the grip of red-hot
pincers; in this state, and half-naked, he rose to his feet, and turning
to his brother, said--

"Bernardo, if in my examination I have compromised and accused you,
I have done so falsely, and although I have already disavowed this
declaration, I repeat, at the moment of appearing before God, that you
are innocent, and that it is a cruel abuse of justice to compel you to
witness this frightful spectacle."

The executioner then made him kneel down, bound his legs to one of the
beams erected on the scaffold, and having bandaged his eyes, shattered
his head with a blow of his mallet; then, in the sight of all, he hacked
his body into four quarters. The official party then left, taking with
them Bernardo, who, being in a state of high fever, was bled and put to
bed.

The corpses of the two ladies were laid out each on its bier under the
statue of St. Paul, at the foot of the bridge, with four torches of
white wax, which burned till four o'clock in the afternoon; then,
along with the remains of Giacomo, they were taken to the church of
San Giovanni Decollato; finally, about nine in the evening, the body
of Beatrice, covered with flowers, and attired in the dress worn at her
execution, was carried to the church of San Pietro in Montorio, with
fifty lighted torches, and followed by the brethren of the order of the
Stigmata and all the Franciscan monks in Rome; there, agreeably to her
wish, it was buried at the foot of the high altar.

The same evening Signora Lucrezia was interred, as she had desired to
be, in the church of San Giorgio di Velobre.

All Rome may be said to have been present at this tragedy, carriages,
horses, foot people, and cars crowding as it were upon one another.
The day was unfortunately so hot, and the sun so scorching, that many
persons fainted, others returned home stricken with fever, and some even
died during the night, owing to sunstroke from exposure during the three
hours occupied by the execution.

The Tuesday following, the 14th of September, being the Feast of the
Holy Cross, the brotherhood of San Marcello, by special licence of the
pope, set at liberty the unhappy Bernardo Cenci, with the condition of
paying within the year two thousand five hundred Roman crowns to the
brotherhood of the most Holy Trinity of Pope Sixtus, as may be found
to-day recorded in their archives.

Having now seen the tomb, if you desire to form a more vivid impression
of the principal actors in this tragedy than can be derived from a
narrative, pay a visit to the Barberini Gallery, where you will see,
with five other masterpieces by Guido, the portrait of Beatrice, taken,
some say the night before her execution, others during her progress
to the scaffold; it is the head of a lovely girl, wearing a headdress
composed of a turban with a lappet. The hair is of a rich fair chestnut
hue; the dark eyes are moistened with recent tears; a perfectly formed
nose surmounts an infantile mouth; unfortunately, the loss of tone
in the picture since it was painted has destroyed the original fair
complexion. The age of the subject may be twenty, or perhaps twenty-two
years.

Near this portrait is that of Lucrezia Petrani: the small head indicates
a person below the middle height; the attributes are those of a Roman
matron in her pride; her high complexion, graceful contour, straight
nose, black eyebrows, and expression at the same time imperious and
voluptuous indicate this character to the life; a smile still seems to
linger on the charming dimpled cheeks and perfect mouth mentioned by
the chronicler, and her face is exquisitely framed by luxuriant curls
falling from her forehead in graceful profusion.

As for Giacomo and Bernardo, as no portraits of them are in existence,
we are obliged to gather an idea of their appearance from the manuscript
which has enabled us to compile this sanguinary history; they are thus
described by the eye-witness of the closing scene--Giacomo was short,
well-made and strong, with black hair and beard; he appeared to be about
twenty-six years of age.

Poor Bernardo was the image of his sister, so nearly resembling her,
that when he mounted the scaffold his long hair and girlish face led
people to suppose him to be Beatrice herself: he might be fourteen or
fifteen years of age.

The peace of God be with them!