The old man found himself deprived by his own act of his principality, and the succession turned from his son to the son of his younger brother.

He began a negotiation for again obtaining possession of the Roman title--at least so the family tradition goes--but his brother, who was firmly established in Rome, refused to listen to his demands.

At this juncture the old man died, being legally, observe, still the head of the family of Saracinesca; his son should have succeeded him.

But his wife, the young daughter of an obscure Neapolitan nobleman, was not more than eighteen years of age, and the child was only six months old.

People married young in those days.