"Lucrezia, believing that the monster whom she had espoused was possessed, in spite of his cruelty, by a criminal passion for his own daughter, attempted secretly to save her, by presenting a memorial to the pope imploring him to give her in marriage to a Signor Guerra, who had long been attached to her. But this petition was intercepted by Francesco, who then carried off Lucrezia and his two youngest children, Beatrice and Bernardo, to Petrella, a vast and desolate castle in the Apennines. Guerra, and Giacomo the eldest remaining brother of Beatrice, hired a band of banditti in the Sabine hills who were to attack the party on the way, and to carry off Francesco for a ransom, liberating the women;--but the rescue arrived too late. "When they reached Petrella, Beatrice was incarcerated in a subterranean dungeon, where she was persuaded that her lover Guerra had been murdered, and was treated with such awful cruelty by her father, that, for a time, she was deprived of her reason. One day a servant, Marzio, whose betrothed had previously been seduced and murdered by Francesco, roused by the shrieks of Beatrice, burst into the room, and rushing upon his master dealt a terrible thrust with a dagger on his neck, exclaiming, 'I murder thee, assassin of thy own blood.' But Cenci arose uninjured, to the horror of Marzio, who imagined that only a demon could avert such a blow, and who was ignorant that he wore under his vestments, even in bed, a coat of mail which covered his entire body. "At length Beatrice contrived to communicate with her brother Giacomo, who united with Guerra in hiring the services of Marzio and of Olympio, another servant, who was inspired with an equal thirst for vengeance upon Count Cenci. All felt that the death of Francesco was the only hope for his unhappy family. The assassins communicated with Lucrezia, who administered an opiate to her husband, and then stole from him some keys which enabled her after midnight to liberate Bernardo and Beatrice. The latter she found in a state of stupefaction, and vainly endeavoured to rouse her, signifying that the moment of escape had arrived. Beatrice showed no symptom of surprise at the announcement, or at the visit of her stepmother at that strange hour; she asked not how they had opened her door, or how her liberty had been acquired. When they were all assembled in the hall, Lucrezia told them the project, and asked their aid. Bernardo at first hesitated, but Lucrezia roused him by every argument she could urge and obtained his consent. Beatrice made no reply.