*144)- 
his wife. He was executed ; and 
his body, according to custom, was 
exposedon the scaffold as a terror 
to the beholders. Rage and despair 
had in the mean time transported 
Valentina to. the dreadfullest of all 
imaginable deeds. She took her 
. two children by the hand, and hur- 
ried them with hasty strides, and 
continually weeping, to the place of 
execution. She pressed throvgh the 
crowd, who made way for her to 
pass, and loaded her with execra- 
tions. 
But Valentina was deaf to all that 
passed. She reached the foot of 
the bloody scaffold, and mounted 
with her children the fatal steps, as 
though she would once more em- 
brace the body of her spouse. Va- 
lentina led her children. quite up 
to the bleeding corpse, and bade 
them embrace their deceased father. 
At this doleful sight, and at the 
cries of these poor children, all the 
spectators burst out into tears, when 
suddenly the raging mother plunged 
a dagger into the breast of one, 
yan upon the other, and stretched 
him dead beside his dying brother. 
An universal burst of horror and 
dismay ascended to the skies! The 
ANNU S&L. REGISTER, 1795. 
populace ranto lay hold of her—~ 
but, already she had stabbed herself 
with the poignard, and fell lifeless 
on the bodies of her husband and 
children, 
The sight of the two murdered 
children, and the mother wallow- 
ing in their blood, filled all that 
were present with detestation and 
terror. It was asif the whole city 
had met with some general calamity, 
Astonishment and. dejection took 
held of every mind and heart. The 
inhabitants roamed up and down 
the streets in gloomy silence, and 
the crowd was incessantly renewing 
round the scaffold where the blood 
of the children and the mother was 
mingling with the blood of the in- 
nocent father. Even the hardest 
hearts were melted into pity and 
compassion. 
The judge, affected by the rela- 
tion, granted leave to the family to 
inter the bodies of the father and 
mother in a place without the walls, 
The two children were buried in 
the church of St. Catharine. The 
tradition of this melancholy event 
has been preserved at Pisa to the 
precent day, and itis still related 
there with yisible concern, 
A tenes can EY 
