been seen prowling
round the castle, and that the Neapolitan police had received orders to
arrest them.

The monsignor was a most wary man, and very difficult to catch
napping when warned in time. He immediately hired two other sbirri to
assassinate Marzio and Olympio. The one commissioned to put Olympio out
of the way came across him at Terni, and conscientiously did his work
with a poniard, but Marzio's man unfortunately arrived at Naples too
late, and found his bird already in the hands of the police.

He was put to the torture, and confessed everything. His deposition
was sent to Rome, whither he shortly afterwards followed it, to be
confronted with the accused. Warrants were immediately issued for the
arrest of Giacomo, Bernardo, Lucrezia, and Beatrice; they were at
first confined in the Cenci palace under a strong guard, but the proofs
against them becoming stronger and stronger, they were removed to the
castle of Corte Savella, where they were confronted with Marzio;
but they obstinately denied both any complicity in the crime and any
knowledge of the assassin. Beatrice, above all, displayed the greatest
assurance, demanding to be the first to be confronted with Marzio; whose
mendacity she affirmed with such calm dignity, that he, more than ever
smitten by her beauty, determined, since he could not live for her, to
save her by his death. Consequently, he declared all his statements
to be false, and asked forgiveness from God and from Beatrice; neither
threats nor tortures could make him recant, and he died firm in his
denial, under frightful tortures. The Cenci then thought themselves
safe.

God's justice, however, still pursued them. The sbirro who had killed
Olympio happened to be arrested for another crime, and, making a clean
breast, confessed that he had been employed by Monsignor Guerra--to put
out of the way a fellow-assassin named Olympio, who knew too many of the
monsignor's secrets.

Luckily for himself, Monsignor Guerra heard of this opportunely. A man
of infinite resource, he lost not a moment in timid or irresolute plans,
but as it happened that at the very moment when he was warned, the
charcoal dealer who supplied his house with fuel was at hand, he sent
for him, purchased his silence with a handsome bribe, and then, buying
for almost their weight in gold the dirty old clothes which he wore, he
assumed these, cut off all his beautiful cherished fair hair, stained
his beard, smudged his face, b