The history of the popes, from the close of the middle ages : drawn ...

MURDER OF CAPECE. I37
The following facts ma}^ however, be taken as certain :
in the July of that year, tales were brought to the Duke
of Paliano to the effect that his wife was carrying on illicit
relations with one of the members of her household, the
handsome and talented NeapoHtan, Marcello Capece. The
Duke was all the more ready to become suspicious and jealous
as he knew himself to be guilty of a similar want of fidelity.
He gave credence to the guilt of Capece and his wife, and took
a bloody revenge upon both of them. Capece was taken
to the dungeons of the fortress of Soriano, while the Duchess
was strictly guarded in the castle of Gallese. The jealousy
of the Duke was still further inflamed by the false ideas of
honour then common among the nobles, which taught that
the adultery of a wife brought such a stain upon the family
as could onty be washed out in the blood of the guilty parties.
Giovanni Carafa was strengthened in this view, not only by
his brother. Cardinal Carlo, but also by his brother-in-law.
Justifying himself on his right, as feudal lord of his subjects,
to judge and punish them without restraint, he set up a
secret criminal court, of which he himself, the brother of the
Duchess, Ferrante, Count d'Alife, her uncle, Lionardo di
Cardine, and a third relative, Gian Antonio Toralto, were the
members. The investigation, if one can call it such, took
place in secret, completely ignoring all legal forms, without
witnesses, defence or notary. The court was held in the
strong old fortress of the Orsini, which stands high above the
little town of Soriano. An admission was drawn from
Capece under torture that he had enjoyed the favour of the
Duchess ; the Duke, thereupon, seized with ungovernable
fury, stabbed him on the spot, during the night between
July 26th and 27th, 1559.
In consequence of the excitement,
and the persistent pressure of his relatives, to cleanse still
further the supposedly besmirched honour of the family,
by the blood of the Duchess, the enraged man fell ill, and
with regard to the matter (Angel, 61 n. i). Riess (p. 378) and
Parisio (Arch. Napolit., XII., 838 seq.) consider the Duchess
guilty, without taking into consideration the weighty arguments
to the contrary brought forward by Gnoli [loc. cit., 814 5^^.).