Renaissance in Italy, Volumes 6 and 7 (of 7): The Catholic ReactionSymonds, John Addington
History
Renaissance in Italy, Volumes 6 and 7 (of 7): The Catholic Reaction
Symonds, John Addington
Catholic Church -- Italy -- History; Renaissance -- Italy
When Osio had pushed Ottavia into the Lambro, and had tried to smash her
brains out with his harquebuss, he resumed his midnight journey with
Sister Benedetta. They reached an uninhabited house in the country about
five or six miles distant from Monza. Here Osio shut Benedetta up in an
empty room with a stone bench running along the wall. She remained there
all Friday, visited once by her dreaded companion, who brought her
bread, cheese, and wine. She abstained from touching any of this food,
in fear of poison. About nine in the evening he returned, and bade her
prepare to march. They set out again, together, in the dark; and after
walking about three miles they came to a well, down which Osio threw
her. The well was deep, and had no water in it. Benedetta injured her
left side in the fall; and when she had reached the bottom, her would-be
murderer flung a big stone on her which broke her right leg. She
contrived to protect her head by gathering stones around it, and lay
without moaning or moving, in the fear that Osio would attempt fresh
violence unless he thought her dead. From the middle of Friday night,
until Sunday morning, she remained thus, exploring with her eyes the
surface of her dungeon. It was dry and strewn with bones. In one corner
lay a round black object which bore the aspect of a human skull. As it
eventually turned out, this was the head of Caterina, whom Benedetta
herself had helped to murder, and which Osio had thrown there. On
Sunday, during Mass, the men of the village of Velate were in church,
when they heard a voice from outside calling out, 'Help, help! I am at
the bottom of this well!' The well, as it happened, was distant some
dozen paces from the church door, and Benedetta had timed her call for
assistance at a lucky moment. The villagers ran to the spot, and drew
her out by means of a man who went down with a rope. She was then taken
to the house of a gentleman, Signor Alberico degli Alberici, who, when
no one else was charitable enough to receive her, opened his doors to
the exhausted victim of that murderous outrage. It may be remarked that
the same surgeon who had been employed to report on Ottavia's wounds,
now appeared to examine Benedetta. His name was Ambrogio Vimercati.
Benedetta was taken to the convent of S. Orsola, where her friend
Ottavia lay dying; and after making a full confession, she eventually
recovered her health, and suffered life-long incarceration in her old
convent.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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