The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1877-06-14
The Cenci Palace.

Inc pdldce aJ It's nedus cuHDeu up
and found myself in a little square, on
which fronted the massive and molder-
ing walls of the PdldzzO CeRci. A po-
lite question at the door gained me
speedy admission, and was shown with
great courtesy through the suites of
apartments of this once famous palace,
the scene of so many terrible crimes and
tragedies, the home of the lovely and
most unfortunate Beatrice. 1t is now
occupied by a Hebrew family of the
weather. class, all of whom seemed to
take much pride and pleasure in show
ing their dwelling to the stranger, and
they assured me that such visitors were
very infrequent. The rooms are lofty
and well proportioned, the ceilings beau
tifully paneled, each panel surrounded
with heavy arabasques of furnished but
elaborate carving and gliding, and each
filled with beautifully executed paint
ings, of which the colors were still bright
and clear.
We were shown poor Beatrice's cham
Der. The paintings on its panels are all
of horses and landscapes; and we sadly
thought of the. beautiful soul-winning
eyes that must so often have gazed up
on them. Poor unfortunate, lovely Be-
atrice! Most wrongfully accused of
participating in the murder of her IA
Their, who was really procured to be
assassinated by her mother (and if ever
an abominable old wretch deserved sum-
mary killing at the hands of his kins-
folk, it was this same tyrannical and
brutal Francesca CencD, she was i'm
INJURED in the horrible dungeon still
shown in the castle of San Angelo, and
taken out thence, from time to time, to
be tortured with all the exquisite refine
ments of cruelty which the devilish in
genuity of man could invent, so as to
compel her to confess that of which she
was innocent. But although the lovely
and tender body of this young and deli
cately nurtured girl was almost torn
asrnder by these fiendish torments, her
conscious innocence still remained I'M
shaken. There must be an exaltation
ofsOul which accompanies the conscious
ness of innocence and deadens the
nerves, rendering the body compare
lively insensible to pain. Else the weak,
human nature of the martyrs never
could have endured the prolonged ago
MES to which they were subjected. Tor
tured with the cruel rack and cord, Be
atrice'S cOnstancy remained mistaken.
Stripped and bound into chair with
its narrow seat cut into the form of
pointed diamonds; her hands bound be-
hind and fastened with cord to the
ceiling (they will show you the rings in
San Angeles torture chamber to-day
her body loosely fastened to the back of
the chair, cut also into angular points,
she was constantly pushed from side to
side and jerked by the arm up and down
from the ceiling to the spiked chair be-
low, for forty consecutive hours, fresh
relays Of tormentors relieving each other
every fifth hour And still the weak,
fragile girl was proof. Yet these men
doubtless thought that they were doing
their duty, according to the light that
was in them, and to the custom of their
hard, cruel time, in trying to force what
they supposed was the trnth from a sus-
pected parricide. So, doubt 5, thought
the patient, hard working, self-denying
Philip H., of Spain, when he ordered
the tens of thousands of the Netherland-
ers to torture and to death, that he was
working out a great and good work
through much tribulation. For our fell
lOw-men, when sane, are not such
wantOn, hideous demons as the historians
sometimes try to make us believe. Nero
was, doubtless, mailman, and Philip a
fanatic. When God has made us per-
feet, then we can afford to pass judg-
ment with nOn-sparing severity upon
the crimes of others. Meanwhile let us
judge not, lest we be judged.
Furious with their failure, they next
bound her long and beautiful hair to a
running moose attached to the rings in
the ceiling above, which was constantly
jerked up and down by this, from the
roof to the floor, while sharp cords, tied
about each finger nearly twisted them
out of joint, dragging at the same time
the hand almost from the bone of the
arm, while a block of burning wood
was applied to the soles of the feet. At
last yielding to the supplications of her
family who, with refinement of hellish
malice, were brought in to witness her
sufferings, she consented to confess, and
agreed to admit every interrogatory
which her cruel judges put to her. But
when the inquisition was over, raising
her eyes to Heaven, she exclaimed:
"Oh, God, Thou knowest if this be
truein
On the scaffold the story of her suf-
ferings and innocence and the sight of
her beauty so infamed the spectators
that repeated efforts were made by
bands of excited young men to effect
her rescue. But these were of no avail :;
the guards beat them back, and her
quivering head was exposed to the hor-
ror-stricken crowd by the executioner
Guido's beautiful portrait has made
thy tender, innocent, appealing features
and expression, as they look out from
under the white fleecy turban in the
gloomy cell, and the soulful eyes makes
piteous protestation of innocence to
thy hard-hearted prosecutors, familiar
to all admirers of art throughout the
world. And the history of thy wrongs,
thy trials and suferings, and thy sad
fate, is the most mournful of all the
touching stories in the long records of
Rome.-Rome Cor Detroit Free Press
Mr.. and Mrs. John Hanson, of Dover,
New Hampshire, recently died within a
few hours of each other Mrs IT uas 81