[PAMPHLET 7.]
_No._ 1.--_Letter of the Honourable Marzi-Medici, Governor of Arezzo._
My most Illustrious and Dearly Beloved Master:
Your favoured letter of the twenty-fourth of last month has reached
me, and I am exceedingly sorry for the uneasiness in which you hint
you are placed by the maledictions which Signor Pietro Comparini and
his wife have disseminated throughout Rome, concerning the
ill-treatment they say they suffered in your home while staying in
Arezzo. As your letter questions me for true information, I answer
with all frankness, that both among the noble connection and in Count
Guido's home they were treated with all respect and decorum. The cause
of the first disturbance which sprang up between them and your mother
and brothers was that Signora Violante, a few days after her arrival,
presumed to domineer over the house and to keep the keys of
everything, and in fact to turn out of house and home Signora
Beatrice, your mother. With good reason, neither of the brothers was
willing to consent thereto, and this gave occasion for the first
insults and domestic broils. These afterwards increased when they saw
that Signor Pietro had given over the company and conversation of the
best people of the city, and had struck up acquaintance with the most
vulgar. And with them he began to frequent daily all the taverns here.
This cast discredit upon him, and was little for the good name of the
Franceschini. Of much greater scandal were the many flights and
petitions made by Guido's wife, their daughter, to Monsignor the
Bishop. These were made for no other reason than that neither she nor
her parents wished to stay any longer in Arezzo, but desired to return
to Rome. When she had been rebuked by that most prudent Prelate, he
always sent her home in his carriage. It is true that ever since the
Comparini left this City until the present time the Signora has
conducted herself with much modesty and prudence. From this fact
every one infers that the poor child was led to such excesses by her
parents, as she herself declares to everybody. Now she detests even
the memory of them. Therefore, she is getting back into the good
opinion of every one, and especially of those ladies of the city who
had ceased having anything to do with her. Finally, these same
Comparini had taken away all her jewellery from the Signora, which I
forced them to restore. Altogether, such and so great are the scandals
to which they have given rise before the whole city in the lapse of
the few months they have stayed here, that I write you only a few of
them. I assure you that with them your brothers have had the patience
of martyrs. Accordingly when I saw that they had become incorrigible,
and were the talk of the town, and that they might force your brothers
to commit some excess against them, for the maintenance of good
discipline, I availed myself of the authority vested in me by His
Serene Highness, and threatened them with prison and punishment unless
they behaved themselves. After these threats, which they evidently
merited and which might have overtaken them, they decided to go to
Rome, as they did a little later, leaving behind them in this city a
very bad reputation.
As for the rest, there is now in your home an utter quietude, and the
Signora lives with exemplary prudence, detesting the ill example she
had shown the ladies of this city, and she confesses freely that it
was so commanded by her parents. In my judgment, it is the hand of God
that has freed your family from such turbid heads. This is all I can
here put down, out of much else there is to say about it. Therefore
rest at ease, and believe me that the discredit has been entirely
their own. I need only sign myself, with all my heart, to your most
illustrious self,
Your most devoted and obliged servant,
VINCENZO MARZI-MEDICI.
AREZZO, _August 2, 1694_.
To Signor Abate Paolo Franceschini, Rome.