authority says she was sixteen, Shelley's that she was twenty.] [Footnote 200: De Stendhal's MS.

describes how Giacomo was torn by pincers; Shelley's says that this part of the sentence was remitted.] _The Massimi_.
The tragedy of the Cenci, about which so much has been written in consequence of the supposed part taken in it by Beatrice, seems to me common-place compared with that of the Massimi.[202] [Footnote 201: The author of De Stendhal's MS.

professes to have known the old Cenci, and gives a definite description of his personal appearance.] [Footnote 202: Litta supplies the facts related above.] Whether this family really descended from the Roman Fabii matters but little.

In the sixteenth century they ranked, as they still rank, among the proudest nobles of the Eternal City.

Lelio, the head of the house, had six stalwart sons by his first wife, Girolama Savelli.