shut up in a remote
apartment of his palace, the key of which he kept in his own possession.
There, her unnatural and inflexible gaoler daily brought her some food.
Up to the age of thirteen, which she had now reached, he had behaved to
her with the most extreme harshness and severity; but now, to poor
Beatrice's great astonishment, he all at once became gentle and even
tender. Beatrice was a child no longer; her beauty expanded like a
flower; and Francesco, a stranger to no crime, however heinous, had
marked her for his own.

Brought up as she had been, uneducated, deprived of all society, even
that of her stepmother, Beatrice knew not good from evil: her ruin was
comparatively easy to compass; yet Francesco, to accomplish his
diabolical purpose, employed all the means at his command. Every night
she was awakened by a concert of music which seemed to come from
Paradise. When she mentioned this to her father, he left her in this
belief, adding that if she proved gentle and obedient she would be
rewarded by heavenly sights, as well as heavenly sounds.

One night it came to pass that as the young girl was reposing, her head
supported on her elbow, and listening to a delightful harmony, the
chamber door suddenly opened, and from the darkness of her own room she
beheld a suite of apartments brilliantly illuminated, and sensuous with
perfumes; beautiful youths and girls, half clad, such as she had seen in
the pictures of Guido and Raffaelle, moved to and fro in these
apartments, seeming full of joy and happiness: these were the ministers
to the pleasures of Francesco, who, rich as a king, every night revelled
in the orgies of Alexander, the wedding revels of Lucrezia, and the
excesses of Tiberius at Capri. After an hour, the door closed, and the
seductive vision vanished, leaving Beatrice full of trouble and
amazement.

The night following, the same apparition again presented itself, only, on
this occasion, Francesco Cenci, undressed, entered his daughter's roam
and invited her to join the fete. Hardly knowing what she did, Beatrice
yet perceived the impropriety of yielding to her father's wishes: she
replied that, not seeing her stepmother, Lucrezia Petroni, among all
these women, she dared not leave her bed to mix with persons who were
unknown to her. Francesco threatened and prayed, but threats and prayers
were of no avail. Beatrice wrapped herself up in the bedclothes, and
obstinately refused to obey.

The ne