He now showed himself the relentless enemy of the Duchess.

Disputes arose between them as to certain details, which seem to have been legally decided in the widow's favor.

On the night of December 22, however, forty men, disguised in black and fantastically tricked out to elude detection, surrounded her palace.

Through the long galleries and chambers hung with arras, eight of them went, bearing torches, in search of Vittoria and her brothers.

Marcello escaped, having fled the house under suspicion of the murder of one of his own followers.