opened into the next in such a manner that only the last was not
necessarily a passage. In the huge hall was the dais and canopy
with the family arms embroidered in colours once gaudy but now
agreeably faded to a softer tone. Above this floor was another,
occupied by the married sons, their wives and children; and high
over all, above the cornice of the palace, were the endless
servants' quarters and the roomy garrets. At a rough estimate the
establishment comprised over a hundred persons, all living under
the absolute and despotic authority of the head of the house, Don
Lotario Montevarchi, Principe Montevarchi, and sole possessor of
forty or fifty other titles. From his will and upon his pleasure
depended every act of every member of his household, from his
eldest son and heir, the Duca di Bellegra, to that of Pietro
Paolo, the under-cook's scullion's boy. There were three sons and
four daughters. Two of the sons were married, to wit, Don Ascanio,
to whom his father had given his second title, and Don Onorato,
who was allowed to call himself Principe di Cantalupo, but who
would have no legal claim to that distinction after his father's
death. Last of the three came Don Carlo, a young fellow of twenty
years, but not yet emancipated from the supervision of his tutor.
Of the daughters, the two eldest, Bianca and Laura, were married
and no longer lived in Rome, the one having been matched with a
Neapolitan and the other with a Florentine. There remained still
at home, therefore, the third, Donna Flavia, and the youngest of
all the family, Donna Faustina. Though Flavia was not yet two and
twenty years of age, her father and mother were already beginning
to despair of marrying her, and dropped frequent hints about the
advisability of making her enter religion, as they called it; that
is to say, they thought she had better take the veil and retire
from the world.