uted on the following day,
Saturday, May 11, 1599, on the bridge of Saint Angelo, the three victims
being Lucrezia the wife, Beatrice, and the older brother, Giacomo, all
the other sons excepting Bernardo being dead at this time. Part of the
Cenci estates were conveyed to one of the pope's nephews, and became the
Villa Borghese, wherein may still be seen portraits of Lucrezia Petroni
and Beatrice Cenci, the latter by the well-known Guido Reni. It is
generally believed that this portrait was painted while Beatrice was in
prison, and Shelley has given the following appreciative description of
it in the preface to his tragedy, _The Cenci_, which is based upon this
story, and which he wrote in Rome in 1819:

"There is a fixed and pale composure upon the features, she seems
sad and stricken down in spirit, yet the despair thus expressed is
lightened by the patience of gentleness. Her head is bound with
folds of white drapery, from which the yellow strings of her golden
hair escape and fall about her neck. The moulding of her face is
exquisitely delicate, the eyebrows are distinct and arched, the
lips have that permanent meaning of imagination and sensibility
which suffering has not repressed and which it seems as if death
scarcely could extinguish. Her forehead is large and clear, her
eyes, which we are told were remarkable for their vivacity, are
swollen with weeping and lustreless, but beautifully tender and
serene. In the whole mien there are simplicity and dignity which,
united with her exquisite loveliness and deep sorrow, are
inexpressibly pathetic. Beatrice Cenci appears to have been one of
those rare persons in whom energy and gentleness dwell together
without destroying one another; her nature was simple and profound.
The crimes and miseries in which she was an actor and a sufferer
are as the mask and the mantle in which circumstances clothed her
for her impersonation in the scene of the world."

To-day, the story is still an oft-told tale in Rome, the portrait of _la
Cenci_ is known by all, and all feel pity for her sad fate. However
great her crime may have been, it should be taken into account that it
was only after "long and vain attempts to escape from what she
considered a perpetual contamination, both of mind and body,"--as
Shelley puts it,--that she plotted the murder for which she was
beheaded; so great was the p