CHAPTER IV.

THE BIRTH OF FRANCESCA'S FIRST CHILD--HER CARE IN HIS EDUCATION--SHE
UNDERTAKES THE MANAGEMENT OF HER FATHER-IN-LAW'S HOUSEHOLD--A FAMINE
AND PESTILENCE IN ROME--FRANCESCA'S LABOURS FOB THE SICK AND POOR--THE
MIRACLES WROUGHT IN HER BEHALF.

The year 1400 was opening under melancholy auspices. Boniface IX. was at
that moment in possession of the pontifical throne, and celebrating the
jubilee, the periodical recurrence of which at the end of every fifty
years had been decreed by Clement VI. in 1350; but Rome was even then
in a lamentable state, and presages were not wanting of still more
disastrous times. The wars for the succession of the kingdom of Naples,
between Louis of Anjou and Ladislas Durazzo, were agitating the whole
of Italy; and the capital of the Christian world was exposed to all the
fury of the contending parties. The powerful faction of the Colonnas,
in arms against the Pope, invaded the Capitol at the head of a numerous
body of insurgents on horseback and on foot; and the air resounded with
the cries of "Long live the people! Death to the tyrant Boniface IX.!"
On that day the signal was given for a division of parties, which led
shortly afterwards to the appalling tragedy which decimated the nobility
of the Eternal City and deluged her streets with blood.

Lorenzo Ponziano, from his rank and his great possessions, as well
as from his fidelity to the Church and the Sovereign Pontiff, was
especially marked out as an enemy by the adverse faction. But while on
every side the storm was brewing, and the aspect of public affairs each