church-books as the legitimized son of Venanzio and Maria Bonci, in June,
1836. Against this strong presumptive evidence of paternity, and the
natural inference to be drawn from the child having been brought up and
educated as Venanzio's son, there were only, we are told, to be set,
alleged expressions of doubt on the father's part, when in a passion, as
to his being really the father, and also certain confessions of the
mother to different parties, that Luigi was not the child of her husband.
All these confessions however, so it is asserted, were proved to be
subsequent in date to the son's arrest, and therefore, probably, made
with a view to save his life. The plea is in consequence rejected.

No defence was attempted to the second count. Both charges are therefore
declared fully proved; and as the punishment for parricide is public
execution, and the penalty for having in one's possession (a lighter
offence by the way, than using) any weapon without special license,
consists of imprisonment from two to twelve months, and of a fine from
five to sixty scudi, therefore the court "condemns Luigi Bonci for the
first count, to be publicly executed in Cannara, and to make compensation
to the heirs of the murdered man, according to the valuation of the civil
tribunals, and to pay the cost of the trial; and on the second count, the
court" (with a pedantic mockery of mercy) "considers the first three
months of the incarceration the prisoner has already undergone to be
sufficient punishment, coupled with a fine of five scudi and the loss of
the weapon."

This summary will, I fear, give the reader too favourable an opinion of
the original sentence. In order to make the story at all intelligible, I
have had to pick out my facts, from a perfect labyrinth of sentences and
parentheses. All I, or any one else can state is, that these seem to be
the facts, which seem to have been proved by the witnesses. What the