THE GARDENS. OF ITALY. 
near seventy and having several grown-up children, 
took as his second wife, Caterina, the young 
daughter of a dyer, who was popularly called “ the 
fair Cherubim,” from her silken gold hair and 
her exquisite colouring. Her husband being “ the 
ugliest, most tiresome, and the dirtiest man in 
Florence,” it was scarcely to be wondered at that 
Caterina had first one lover and then another. 
She finally made the acquaintance of the Duke, 
who fell violently in love with her and used to 
visit her frequently. He could not prevent his 
infidelity reaching the ears of the Duchess, who 
was bitterly jealous. She tried to poison Caterina, 
but failing, she laid a plot to get rid of her. 
She contrived to get hold of Caterina’s two 
step-sons, Bartolommeo and Francesco, and by 
bribes, promising to hold them harmless and to 
make them an allowance, she prevailed on the 
elder to introduce the instruments of her vengeance 
into their father’s house. She hired four assassins 
from Massa, who on December 31st, 1638, effected 
an entrance and brutally murdered the unfortunate 
Caterina and her maid. They cut the bodies 
to pieces and threw them down a _ well and 
into the Arno, all except the head of poor 
Caterina, which the Duchess had desired to have 
sent to her. 
“ Now the Duchess,” continues the narrative, 
“was used to send to the Duke’s room on Sundays 
and other holidays a silver basin covered with a 
fair cloth, containing collars, cuffs, and such-like 
things, which the Duke was wont to change on 
those days. But on this, the rst of January : 
the present sent was of a different nature. Taking 
the head of poor Caterina, which, though bloodless 
and cold, yet preserved the beauty which had 
been the cause of her death, the Duchess placed it 
in the basin, covered with the usual cloth, and 
sent it by her waiting woman into the Duke’s 
room. When he rose and lifted the cloth to take 
the clean linen, let his horror be pictured when he 
saw such a pitiful sight. Knowing full 
well that his wife had done this deed, he would 
have no more of her, and for many a long year 
refused to be where she was.” It was at Villa 
Salviati that this dreadful offering was made, and 
there is still a legend that in the dusk of the last 
night of the year, a fair head rolls silently along 
the haunted floor of the Duke’s chamber. 
The last Salviati who owned the villa was a 
Cardinal. He left it to his niece, Princess Borghese. 
Later it was sold to an Englishman and then to 
Mario, the famous tenor, who as Duke of Candia 
lived there with Grisi, and who there entertained 
Garibaldi when he visited Florence. It now 
belongs to Signor Turri. 
