Grave suspicion was thus cast on Lucrezia.

Had she perchance connived at her husband's murder?
Was she an accomplice in the tragedy?
Lucrezia's peril now became imminent.

Her brother, Giovan Lorenzo Malpigli, who remained her friend throughout, thought it best for her to retire as secretly as possible into a convent.

The house chosen was that of S.Chiara in the town of Lucca.

On June 5, she assumed the habit of S.Francis, cut her hair, changed her name from Lucrezia to Umilia, and offered two thousand crowns of dower to this monastery.