" ... Francesco Cenci was murdered in his sleep. Marzio placed a large nail or iron bolt on his right eye, which Olympio, with one blow of a hammer, drove straight into the brain. The deed thus accomplished, Marzio and Olympio wrapped the dead body in a sheet, and carried it to a small pavilion built at the end of a terrace-walk, overlooking an orchard. From this height they cast it down on an old gnarled elder-tree, in order that when the body should be found the next morning, it might appear that whilst walking on the terrace, the foot of the count had slipped, and that he had fallen head-foremost on one of the stunted branches of the tree, which, piercing through his eye to the brain, had caused his death. Returning to the hall, they received from Lucrezia a purse of gold; Marzio, carrying with him a valuable cloak trimmed with gold lace, turned towards Beatrice (who still stood leaning against the table), and saying, 'I shall keep this as a memorial of you,' departed with Olympio. The report of Francesco's death was not spread through the castle until the next morning. Lucrezia then rushed through the house uttering cries. In a day or two the funeral took place, and immediately after the family returned to Rome. Giacomo took possession of the Cenci palace, and Beatrice daily improved in health of body and mind.
"Soon, however, the suspicious circumstances of Count Cenci's death excited attention; the body was exhumed and examined, and the inhabitants of Petrella placed under arrest, when a washerwoman deposed to having received bloody sheets from one of the inhabitants of the castle--she thought from Beatrice--the day after the murder. On hearing this, the fear that he would turn against them, induced Signor Guerra to hire assassins to pursue Olympio, whom they despatched at Terni; but Marzio was arrested, and confessed the circumstances of the murder, though when confronted with Beatrice, he proclaimed her innocence of it, and declared her incapable of crime.
"Guerra made good his escape, but the whole Cenci family were thrown into prison and put to the torture. Giacomo, Bernardo, and Lucrezia, unable to endure the sufferings of the rack, confessed at once.
"Such, however, was not the case with the young and beautiful Beatrice. Full of spirit and courage, neither the persuasions nor threats of Moscati the judge could extort from her the smallest confession. She endured the torture of the cord with all the firmness which the purity of her heart inspired. The judge failed to extort from her lips a single word which could throw a shade over her innocence, and at length, believing it useless to pursue the torture further, he suspended the proceedings, and reported them to the pope. But Clement VIII, suspecting that the unwillingness of Moscati to believe Beatrice guilty was induced by her extreme beauty, only replied by consigning the prosecution to another judge, and Beatrice was left in the hands of Luciani, 'a man whose heart was a stranger to every feeling of humanity.' Upon her renewed protestations of innocence, he ordered the torture of the Vigilia.