Murder in the Garden of God (33 page)

So ended the worldly ambitions of Vittoria Accoramboni. At the grand finale, she possessed half a coffin in an unmarked, unmourned grave. But for eight months she had lived as duchess of Bracciano. During that brief time, she had owned several large wall tapestries, and numerous silver platters, and a marvelous carriage with a roof that opened up to let in the sun.

Clearly, it was a tragic accident, though many in Rome who heard of it uttered the same words that Cardinal Felice Montalto had said four years earlier in reference to another such accidental excess.

It is,
they said,
God’s will.

Chapter 25

Justice Served

They will come against you with weapons, chariots and wagons and
with a throng of people; they will take up positions against you on
every side with large and small shields and with helmets.

I will turn you over to them for punishment, and they will
punish you according to their standards.

–
Ezekiel 23:24

T
he morning after the murders, Lodovico and his men swaggered over to City Hall to speak with the rectors. The gates around the building were closed and heavily guarded. Evidently, the rectors feared that he and his gangsters might try to harm or kidnap them.

Lodovico’s prickly pride was irritated when the soldiers told him they had received orders from the rectors forbidding him to enter. “The signor suffered this with difficulty,” Filelfo wrote, “and disdainfully and loudly spoke some words so that the order came for him to enter. We all entered, and the signor went alone into the chamber of the signor rectors and spoke a while with them.”
¹

Lodovico haughtily complained that he had initially been prevented from entering the building. He, an Orsini, had never suffered such an insult from kings or popes. Then he gave the reason for his visit. Since an unfortunate accident had happened the previous evening to Vittoria Accoramboni, he wanted the dead duke’s furniture. The rectors’ jaws must have dropped at this request. Given the angry men bristling with weapons waiting just outside in the hall, the rectors nodded and smiled, agreeing that he should take possession of the furniture immediately. Lodovico then asked to send a courier to the grand duke of Tuscany and Cardinal de Medici with news of Vittoria’s accident, and they agreed.

Smiling still, the rectors began to ask him where he had been the night before, and what he might know about Vittoria’s death. Lodovico angrily replied that he knew nothing about it. When the rectors asked if they could question his men, he replied haughtily, “My peers do not undergo examination.”
²
With that he stood up and marched out.

The rectors had soldiers follow Lodovico’s courier and arrest him a few miles outside Padua. They hoped to learn from his letters whether Lodovico had instructed his thugs to kill Vittoria. It was always possible, they knew, that when a man ruled over a personal army of lawless murderers, they might kill without the instructions of their boss in a misguided effort to please him. “Will no one rid me of this troublesome priest?” Henry II of England had groaned in 1170 when he heard of new problems stirred up for him by the annoying archbishop of Canterbury. Within days, Thomas Becket had been stabbed to death by four of Henry’s friends.

The rectors recognized that such could have been the case with Lodovico and Vittoria. It had not helped his position, of course, when Lodovico showed up to demand the furniture and refused to answer their questions or allow his men to be interrogated. Such behavior, however, was not necessarily a sign of guilt but could have been caused by his nettlesome Orsini pride.

Nonetheless they were very interested to see what he wrote in his letters to the de Medici brothers. The messenger was duly searched, and in addition to the letters in his leather pouch containing bland accounts of the killings and the furniture, another letter was found in his shoe. “With great contentment of spirit, I give you news of how the business occurred,” Lodovico wrote, “which happened quietly enough.”
³
His guilt was confirmed by his own hand.

In Venice that morning of December 23, a letter of the Paduan authorities describing the crime was presented to the powerful Council of Ten, which was now faced with the most heinous murders in recent memory. They decided to send to Padua one of the three Venetian
avogadori –
top criminal prosecutors – Luigi Bragadino, to investigate the crime. Later that day, the council received from the Paduan authorities copies of Paolo Giordano’s will and codicil; witnesses’ accounts of the arguments between Lodovico and Vittoria leading up to and including the day of the murder; a report of Lodovico’s arrogant behavior toward the rectors of Padua that morning; and copies of the incriminating letters he had sent to the grand duke and Cardinal de Medici.

Clearly, the murders were not committed by Lodovico’s men in a bumbling attempt to please their innocent boss. Lodovico himself had instigated it. The council immediately sent a courier to Padua with orders to keep the gates well guarded so that neither Lodovico nor his men could flee. The following day, despite the fact that it was Christmas Eve, they convened the entire Venetian Senate. The council proposed that Lodovico be taken into custody immediately, dead or alive. There were one-hundred-forty-nine votes for the proposal, and twenty-two against it.

The Senate sent the following letter:

To the rectors of Padua and to Chief Prosecutor Bragadino in that city,

The most atrocious case … of the death of Signora Vittoria Accoramboni and her brother has greatly disturbed us, not only for the interest of justice, but much more for the dignity and security of our republic if such nefarious things were tolerated in our state. We are certain that having received the order that we sent you this morning by express courier, you will have used every means to keep the gates well guarded so that Lodovico Orsini, greatly implicated in the above-mentioned excess, and his men cannot leave…

We command you to procure with all industry and diligence this Lodovico with as many of his men as possible, dead or alive, in whatever way is easiest and most expedient, using such force and artillery as are required… So that the above-mentioned Orsini and his men come securely, dead or alive, into your hands, you have orders that if they try to escape, they should be followed and taken or maltreated and killed.”
⁴

Meanwhile, poor Filelfo, loyal to the bitter end, was fretting about his employer. “Many people all over Padua were already saying that this event had taken place by order of the signor,” he wrote, “and I, too, fell into this opinion but didn’t tell him.”
⁵

Seeing battalions of soldiers march into Padua throughout the day, Filelfo thought that Lodovico should leave the city, which was obviously gearing up for battle. But he didn’t feel comfortable bringing up Vittoria’s murder as the reason. “I, who knew his humor, also knew that when he didn’t feel like talking about a subject, he felt it was an impertinence when someone brought it up.” But there was a good excuse to pack up and leave; Signor Contarini had been angling to get his palace back, which he had only loaned to Lodovico for a short time.

“Since we were not sure of having the house in Padua with any certainty, and since he would not be able to do anything about Signor Paolo’s property during the Christmas holidays, I suggested we go to pass the holiday with his wife at Venice. He replied that he didn’t want to leave, and asked me if I wanted to. I replied no, and then I was silent.”

Filelfo then pretended to go for a walk, but his purpose was to see if the nearby city gate was guarded. To his surprise, he found that it wasn’t. “I told this to the signor laughing and said that if whoever killed Signora Vittoria was in Padua, they could leave because the gates were open and all without guards. He didn’t reply.” Filelfo had heard that the criminal magistrate would be arriving soon and advised Lodovico to visit him and look as if he were cooperating in the investigation. Again, Lodovico refused.

“Now the morning of Christmas, I got up at my usual early hour and went walking in the street in front of the Church of San Agostino… During Mass I heard a certain monk and others say loudly, perhaps to be heard, that all the piazzas and streets were full of armed people who came to the front of the signor’s house to arrest those who had killed Signora Vittoria. Hearing this, I lifted my gaze and saw the bridge of San Giovanni and that of San Thomaso and the street full of people and the walls with muskets, and a piece of artillery on a gate directed at the house.”
⁶

Filelfo saw that even now the city gate next to the church was unguarded, and he could have escaped if he wanted to. “But I was guided by the love and loyalty that I had for the signor, and by my own innocence, to run into the house to give them this news, so that nothing happened unexpectedly. I found him being dressed by Master Honorio Adami and told them what I had heard and what he should do. He replied, ‘Let them come,’ and ordered the crossbar [to bar the door] and his moneybag. He told me to call the others if they were not yet awake, which I did.”
⁷

Meanwhile, the rectors were raising the citizen militia. Soldiers beat drums and blew trumpets, while others cried out, “To arms! To arms, sons of Saint Mark! The most excellent Senate commands you to run to the house of Orsini for the most atrocious and nefarious murders he has committed. Those who do not go will be hanged! To arms! To arms!”
⁸

Many Paduans were sitting in Christmas church services when they heard the call. They stood up, rushed out of the churches in droves, and scattered down side streets to retrieve their weapons from home. Once the citizens had assembled in front of Lodovico’s palace, the chief of the militia, Captain Soardo, instructed them to drive carriages and carts into the surrounding streets, unhitch the horses, and leave them there as blockades. Now Lodovico could not ride out and escape.

Armed men clambered onto the roofs of surrounding houses. Others stood guard at the windows. More cannon were hoisted aloft the nearby city wall and aimed at Lodovico’s palace. An official standing in front of the crowd announced that anyone who turned in one of Lodovico’s men, dead or alive, would receive a reward of 500 ducats. Anyone bringing in Lodovico himself would receive 2,000 ducats, and the release from prison of two criminals of his choice.

Filelfo had followed his master’s commands and roused the other men, who were dressing and arming themselves. “Then I went to the window and saw the street full of people, and I asked in a loud voice what they wanted. A man armed with a gun said that they wanted me.”
⁹

They had evidently mistaken the well-dressed secretary for Lodovico. Filelfo started to reply but Lodovico pushed him away from the window. A gentleman appeared on behalf of the rectors and yelled up to Lodovico that they wanted him to turn himself in.

Feigning ignorance of his crimes, Lodovico said that he did not know why all Padua was in arms around his palace, and he, an Orsini, was certainly not going to be forced out; he would only go of his own free will once the streets were cleared of men and artillery. The gentleman withdrew into the crowd to consult with officials and then returned, letting Lodovico know that the government of Venice negotiated with nations, not with private individuals. They would accept no conditions.

“The assault was begun,” Filelfo reported, “with the greatest noise of muskets and of artillery that battered the house.” Lodovico ran furiously back and forth with a gun in his hand, encouraging his men to fight, and guiding the old men and female servants to shelter, probably in the wine cellar.

Lodovico’s men tried to fire out of the windows but were met with a hail of bullets. Cannonballs ripped through the walls, and the men threw mattresses against the holes in an effort to stop the bullets flying in. The three men who had killed Vittoria - Tolomeo Visconti, Paganello Ubaldi, and Splandiano Adami - were the bravest fighters, knowing what was in store for them if taken alive. Lodovico ordered Filelfo to take dictation, as he paced back and forth and the bullets whizzed by, and cannons fired, and somewhere a wall collapsed.

“The signor told me to throw outside a note dictated by him and written by me,” the secretary recounted, “in which I had tried to convince him to soften his rigor with gentle words, though it still seemed to me to be a bit haughty.”
¹⁰

The letter was as follows:

Signor Rectors,

I am astonished at the harsh measures being taken against me and my house for reasons I do not understand. And I am Lodovico Orsini, son of Giordano, nephew of Valerio and Bartolomeo de Alviano, and each one of them have promptly and on many occasions risked and in the last case given their lives in the service of this state. So this is the reward for the long, faithful and continuous service of my family… I will await the ending of this business with that intrepid spirit that is required by a member of the Orsini family.

Since your gentlemen do not want to proceed with me on the ordinary terms of justice, to which I will always be most obedient, I protest, and I call the world and God as witnesses, that before committing an unworthy act, I will sacrifice that life that you apparently want to take from me against all terms of piety and justice. I will be forced to reply to such treatment with bloodshed, leaving a clear and unhappy example with my death of my innocence and of the bad fortune of the Orsini house with this republic. With this I kiss your hands.
¹¹

December 25, 1585

Clearly Lodovico, who had just murdered a woman and a defenseless youth, and two years earlier had ambushed Vincenzo Vitelli in his carriage, and had killed countless others, did not believe these to be unworthy acts.

Filelfo was disturbed by the tone of the letter. “After the signor had signed,” he recalled, “I added two lines remitting myself to the free will of the signor rectors, and I tried to throw this note into the streets, but a bullet grazed my hand, taking off some flesh.”
¹²

Lodovico grabbed the blood-splattered letter, opened it, and saw the submissive terms Filelfo had added. He added a sentence of his own. “Since you do not accept any conditions, everything will be done to save our lives.”
¹³
One of Lodovico’s men, Colonel Lorenzo de Nobili, took the letter and for an unknown reason – perhaps because he was waiting for a lull in the firing to throw it out – stuffed it into his sock.

Instead of firing wildly at the palace, the canoneers decided to end the assault quickly by bringing down the façade with strategic shots. A row of columns on the first-floor loggia held up the second floor of the house, and a cannon ball had already nearly severed one column. Now they aimed carefully at the columns, and just as Colonel de Nobili, Vitelli’s assassin Liverotto Paolucci, and a man named Francesco Ranieri were placing mattresses against the front walls of the second floor, the cannon were fired, the columns shattered, and the front of the second floor collapsed.