Beati Paoli

by Luigi Natoli

epilogue

Violante fell ill; visions, terrifying nightmares stirred her feverish nights; when she healed, she wanted to return to her monastery more determined than ever to take the veil.

The image of Donna Gabriella was thick in her memory, and thinking of Blasco seemed to her as a desecration, as a sacrilege, as an infamous rite performed on a grave that pain, sacrifice, piety, made sacred.

In the meantime, the royal licenses that recognized Blasco and invested him with feuds had come; he became Duke of Motta, which made him the saddest and most lonely life.

His fortune stirred envy and humor. The Count of Gisia and the prince of Iraci took the cue of putting out horrible evils against him, suggesting that he had part in the murder of Don Raimondo and that of Emanuele, to become rich and duke.

These rumors came to the ear of Blasco, who a nice after lunch met the two lords at the Navy, slapped them publicly.

"I hope," he said to them, "that among the many lies you are telling, you will at least tell this truth..."

Duels followed. As many young gentlemen did not tolerate Blasco's fortune, they complicated the matter so that Blasco was faced with five duels. The adventure was worth giving him a good mood. He sent the prince of Iraci to bed for two months with a stubble at his side; he disfigured the Count of Gisia by cutting off his nose and his lips down to his chin; he cut off some tendons of his arm from one third, to make it inert for his whole life; he disarmed the fourth; the fifth estimated not to expose himself to any risk and declared himself satisfied with the wounds... of the others.

These duels raged: They caused some trouble in Blasco, but the proclamation of Emperor Charles VI to king of Sicily made him gracious. He became the idol of society and many ladies did everything to get him, but Blasco did not let himself be seduced. Two women, or rather two images of a woman, had worshiped in the depths of her heart: that of Donna Gabriella and that of Violante, both united in the vision of that fatal and tragic evening.

He tried several times to see Violante; the maiden always refused; but finally the prince of Butera who loved Blasco and who would gladly see him bridegroom of Violante (and already knew everything), arranged things so that the two young men were together alone, for an instant, in a room of the palace.

Before Blasco the maiden trembled. He said to her:

"Would you still refuse to obey the vow of a dead woman, who would escape life only for us, for our joy?"

Violante felt her eyes filled with tears, Blasco took her hand and she left it to her. And then he said to her:

"For the sacred memory of that poor woman, I swear to you that I have never loved another woman of true love except you alone, ever since I saw you, an educanda, pass into litter at the Bridge of the Ammiraglio... and I loved you without hope, in silence, as a sacred thing... Do you want to be my wife?..."

She bowed her head, blushing, but her eyes were illuminated by a deep joy...

A few months later they were married. After a year they had a daughter. Violante said to Blasco:

"I want her name to be Gabriella."

Coriolano went abroad.

Don Girolamo took over the direction of the Beati Paoli; one of the first things he did was to judge Nino Bucolaro, who was sentenced to death.

He killed him himself, at night, at the corner of the church of Carmine.

But it was discovered, and in March 1723 he was hanged.

Andrea returned to the house of the Dukes of Motta.

What about Michele Barabino?

The good tailor reopened the shop with the capital donated to him by Blasco and every day, to his gardeners, told the story of the great lord, when there, in the square of the inn, he beat the birri.

"You had to see!" he concluded. But from then on, and no one knew him, I said to myself,

'This can only be a prince!'

I have a good nose."