troni
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 provocation, that all can pity if pardon be
withheld.

The corrupt condition of life in the convents throughout Italy at this
time is not a matter of mere conjecture, for the facts are known in many
cases and are of such a nature as almost to pass belief. One reason for
this state of affairs is to be found in the character of the women who
composed these conventual orders. It is natural to think of them as holy
maidens of deep religious instincts, who had taken the veil