published, immediately after
the Count's execution, in the form of a pamphlet[22]--the then current
substitute for a newspaper.

"Being oppressed by various feelings, and stimulated to revenge, now by
honour, now by self-interest, yielding to his wicked thoughts, he (Count
Guido) devised a plan for killing his wife and her nominal parents; and
having enlisted in his enterprise four other ruffians,"--labourers on
his property, "started with them from Arezzo, and on Christmas-eve
arrived in Rome, and took up his abode at Ponte Milvio, where there was
a villa belonging to his brother, and where he concealed himself with
his followers till the fitting moment for the execution of his design
had arrived. Having therefore watched from thence all the movements of
the Comparini family, he proceeded on Thursday, the 2nd of January, at
one o'clock of the night,[23] with his companions to the Comparini's
house; and having left Biagio Agostinelli and Domenico Gambasini at the
gate, he instructed one of the others to knock at the house-door, which
was opened to him on his declaring that he brought a letter from Canon
Caponsacchi at Civita Vecchia. The wicked Franceschini, supported by two
other of his assassins, instantly threw himself on Violante Comparini,
who had opened the door, and flung her dead upon the ground. Pompilia,
in this extremity, extinguished the light, thinking thus to elude her
assassins, and made for the door of a neighbouring blacksmith, crying
for help. Seeing Franceschini provided with a lantern, she ran and hid
herself under the bed, but being dragged from under it, the unhappy
woman was barbarously put to death by twenty-two wounds from the hand of
her husband, who, not content with this, dragged her to the feet of
Comparini, who, being similarly wounded by another of the assassins, was
crying, '_confession_.'"

"At the noise of this horrible massacre people rushed to the spot; but
the villains succeeded in flying, leaving behind, however, in their
haste, one his cloak, and Franceschini his cap, which was the means of
betraying them. The unfortunate Francesca Pompilia, in spite of all the
wounds with which she had been mangled, having implored of the Holy
Virgin the grace of being allowed to confess, obtained it, since she was
able to survive for a short time and describe the horrible attack. She
also related that after the deed, her husband asked the assassin who had
helped him to murder her _if she were re