BOOK IV., TERTIUM QUID.--"A third something," siding neither wholly with

Guido nor with his victim, attempts to arrive at a judicial conclusion apportioning in a superior manner blame now on one side now on the other, and, by granting on each side something, endeavours to reconcile opposing views, and from the contending forces produce something like order. The speaker is addressing personages of importance, and his phrase is courtly and polite. He refers with a sort of contempt to this "episode in burgess-life." His account of the business is as follows:--This Pietro and Violante, living in Rome in a style good enough for their betters, indulge themselves with luxury till they get into debt and creditors begin to press. Driven to seek the papal charity reserved for respectable paupers, they become pensioners of the Vatican, and Violante casts about for means to restore the fortunes of her household. Certain funds only want an heir to take, which heir Violante takes measures to supply by the aid of a needy washerwoman who ekes out her honest trade by a vile one, and who for a price will sell, in six months' time, the child of her shame, meantime pocketing the earnest money and promising secrecy. Violante returns flushed with success, and reaches vespers in time to sing _Magnificat_. Then home to Pietro, to whom is delicately confided the enrapturing but puzzling news that at last an heir will be born to him. In due time the infant is put in evidence, and Francesca Vittoria Pompilia is baptised; and so "lies to God, lies to man," lies every way. The heirs are robbed, foiled of the due succession. When twelve years have passed, the scheming Violante has next to arrange a good match for her daughter, with her savings and her heritage. This, with all Rome to choose from, may be proudly done, and then _Nunc Dimittis_ may be sung. Miserably poor as Count Guido was, the family was old enough to afford the drawback. The Church helped the second son, Paolo, and made a canon of him--even took Guido under its protection so far as one of the minor orders went. A cardinal gave him some inferior post, but afterwards dispensed with his services. What was to be done? Youth had gone, age was coming on. His brother advised him to look out for a rich wife, told him of Pompilia, and offered his assistance in the suit. The burgess family's one want being an aristocratic husband for their girl Violante, eagerly accepted the Count, and they got the marriage done. Pietro had to make the best of things. Who was fool, who knave, it was difficult to decide: perchance neither or both. Guido gives the wealth he had not got, and the Comparini the child not honestly theirs--each cheated the other. It turned out that one party saw the cheat of the other first, and kept its own concealed. Which sinned more was a nice point. The finer vengeance which became old blood was Guido's, the victim was the hard-beset Pompilia, the hero of the piece Caponsacchi. "Out by me!" he cried. "Here my hand holds you life out!" Whereupon Pompilia clasped the saving hand. Then as to the love letters, Guido protests his wife can write. How could he, granting him skill to drive the wife into the gallant's arms, bring the gallant to play his part so well--a man to whom he had never spoken in his life?

NOTES.--Line 31, "_Trecentos inseris: ohe, jam satis est! Huc apelle!_" (Horace, _Sat._ i. 5): "Here, bring to, _ye dogs_, you are stowing in hundreds; hold, now _sure_ there is enough." (Smart's trans.). l. 54, "_basset-table_": basset was a game at cards invented by a Venetian noble; it was introduced into France in 1674. l. 147, "_posts off to vespers, missal beneath arm_": a rather absurd line; a missal is a mass-book, and does not contain the vesper services; mass is always said in the morning. l. 437, "_notum tonsoribus_," the common gossip--(Pr.); _tonsor_, a barber; _zecchines_: sequins, Venetian coins worth from 9_s._ 2_d._ to 9_s._ 6_d._ l. 731, _devils-dung_: assafoetida, an evil-smelling drug. l. 761, "_cross buttock_": a blow across the back; _quarter staff_: a long stout staff used as a weapon of offence or defence. l. 834, "_Hophni and the ark_": "And the ark of God was taken; and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were slain" (I Sam. iv., II etc.). "_Correggio and Ledas_": Correggio's picture of "Leda and the Swan," in the Berlin Museum. l. 1054, "_cui profuerint!_" Whom they might profit! l. 1069, "_acquetta_" == Aqua Tofana, a poisonous liquid much used in Italy in the seventeenth century by women who wished to get rid of their husbands or their rivals. l. 1131, _Rota_: a superior Papal court l. 1144, _Paphos_: a city of Cyprus where Venus was worshipped. l. 1322, _Vicegerent_: an officer deputed by a superior to take his place. l. 1408, _Patrizj_: the captain of the police who arrested the criminals. l. 1577, "_fons et origo malorum_": fount and origin of the evils.