cchi. His worst fears were thus
confirmed. Even so, had he been admitted by Pompilia, weak from her
recent sufferings, he might have paused in pity--by Pietro, he might
have paused in contempt; but it was the hag Violante who opened to him:
the cheat, the mock-mother, the source of all his wrongs. The impulse to
stamp out that one detested life involved all three. And now he triumphs
in the deed. He has cast a foul burden from his life. He can look his
fellow-men in the face again. Far from admitting that he deserves
punishment, he claims the sympathy and the approval of those who have
met to judge him: for he has done their work--the work of Divine justice
and of natural law. In a final burst of rhetoric he challenges his
judges to restore to him his life, his name, his civil rights, and best
of all, his son; and together, he declares, they will rebuild the family
honour, and revive the old forgotten tradition of domestic purity and
peace. And if one day the son, about to kiss his hand, starts at the
marks of violence upon it, he will smile and say, "it was only an
accident--

"... just a trip
O' the torture-irons in their search for truth,--
Hardly misfortune, and no fault at all." (vol. ix. p. 82.)

GIUSEPPE CAPONSACCHI next tells his story. It includes some details of
his earlier life, which throw light on what will follow. He is not a
priest from choice. He had interest in the Church, and grew up in the
expectation of entering it. But when the time came for taking his vows,
he recoiled from the sacrifice which they involved, and yielded only to
the Bishop's assurance that he need make no sacrifice; there were two
ways of interpreting such vows, and he need not select the harder; a man
of polish and accomplishments was as valuable to the Church as a scholar
or an ascetic. Her structure stood firm, and no one need now-a-days
break his back in the effort to hold her up. Let him write his madrigals
(he had a turn for verse-making) and not become a fixture in his seat in
the choir through too close an attendance there. The terms were easy,
and Caponsacchi became a priest, no worse and no better than he was
expected to be; but with the feelings and purposes of a truer manhood
lying dormant within him. These Pompilia was destined to arouse.

He relates that he first saw her at the theatre. His attention was
attracted by her strange sad beauty: and a friend