qualities possessed that of jealousy in a superlative degree. “It was rumoured, but I do not know if it be true, that the Duchess entered San Pier Maggiore one morning where was Caterina whom she knew well by sight, and as though by chance Donna Veronica placed herself by her side and in a few words bade her never again speak to her husband under pain of her dire displeasure. And Caterina replied, perchance with more arrogance and spirit than became her condition, thus increasing the ire of the Duchess and ensuring her own ruin. The Duke’s love grew every day and the Duchess determined to cut the thread; rumour has it that she tried to poison Caterina, but failing, determined to take vengeance in another way; and she did it with such cruelty and barbarity that one may rightly say it was done according to Genoese fashion, and it was as follows:— “She contrived, according to what was said at the time and it seems to be truth, to get hold of the brothers Bartolomeo and Francesco, sons of Giustino Canaccj, youths of about twenty-four or twenty-five, who though they did not inhabit, yet frequented their step-mother’s house; and after much talk representing to them how her licentious life brought ignominy on themselves and their posterity and that as persons of birth and consideration it behoved them to free themselves of her presence, she promised if they would do this not only to give them every help but such protection as would save them from any peril, and as they were poor she also promised to grant them a life-long allowance. I am by no means certain that the Duchess spake thus to both, or only to Bartolomeo the elder brother, who as we shall see was present at the misdeed and paid the penalty. It was said that the brothers, or the one, as it may have been, at first refused, but the offers being at length accompanied by threats they agreed to introduce into their step-mother’s house those persons chosen by the Duchess to work their vengeance (which was in truth her own) on poor Caterina. Some imagined that one of the reasons which led Bartolomeo to assist in the murder of his step-mother was her rejection of his love. Now as such things have occurred I do not absolutely deny that it may have been so, but it seems unlikely to me that Bartolomeo would have been received in his father’s house, also people would have talked much about it and I never remember to have heard it mentioned. Anyhow the Duchess got four assassins from Massa, and they entered one by one into the city so as to avoid observation and suspicion and were kept by her until the time was ripe for effecting her abominable project, which was not until the night of 31st December 1638, and was in this guise. At about three hours of the night Bartolomeo Canaccj, accompanied by the aforesaid bandits who stood at the opposite side of the street in the shade, knocked at his step-mother’s door; her maid looked out of the window and asked who was there, and on his answering _friends_ she