He was resolved to undertake the adventure, and went forth, never to return.

As he ascended the hill, he fell to earth, shot with three harquebusses.

His body was afterwards found on Monte Cavallo, stabbed through and through, without a trace that could identify the murderers.

Only, in the course of subsequent investigations, Il Mancino (February 24, 1582) made the following statements:--That Vittoria's mother, assisted by the waiting woman, had planned the trap; that Marchionne of Gubbio and Paolo Barca of Bracciano, two of the Duke's men, had despatched the victim.

Marcello himself, it seems, had come from Bracciano to conduct the whole affair.
Suspicion fell immediately upon Vittoria and her kindred, together with the Duke of Bracciano; nor was this diminished when the Accoramboni, fearing the pursuit of justice, took refuge in a villa of the Duke's at Magnanapoli a few days after the murder.
A cardinal's nephew, even in those troublous times, was not killed without some noise being made about the matter.