Guerra was called in to this council of death. His heart was a prey
to hatred and revenge. He undertook to communicate with Giacomo Cenci,
without whose concurrence the women would not act, as he was the head of
the family, when his father was left out of account.

Giacomo entered readily into the conspiracy. It will be remembered
what he had formerly suffered from his father; since that time he had
married, and the close-fisted old man had left him, with his wife and
children, to languish in poverty. Guerra's house was selected to meet in
and concert matters.

Giacomo hired a sbirro named Marzio, and Guerra a second named Olympio.

Both these men had private reasons for committing the crime--one being
actuated by love, the other by hatred. Marzio, who was in the service
of Giacomo, had often seen Beatrice, and loved her, but with that silent
and hopeless love which devours the soul. When he conceived that the
proposed crime would draw him nearer to Beatrice, he accepted his part
in it without any demur.

As for Olympio, he hated Francesco, because the latter had caused him to
lose the post of castellan of Rocco Petrella, a fortified stronghold in
the kingdom of Naples, belonging to Prince Colonna. Almost every year
Francesco Cenci spent some months at Rocco Petrella with his family;
for Prince Colonna, a noble and magnificent but needy prince, had much
esteem for Francesco, whose purse he found extremely useful. It had so
happened that Francesco, being dissatisfied with Olympio, complained
about him to Prince Colonna, and he was dismissed.