The cause of this want of family harmony is but indistinctly stated, but apparently it was due to the irregular habits of the son, and to the severity of the father; while all this domestic misery was rendered doubly bitter by the almost abject want of the household.

On the night of November the 9th, 1856, Venanzio Bonci, the father, Maria Rosa, his wife, and their daughter, Caterina, were at supper in the miserable room, which formed the whole of their dwelling, waiting for the return of the son, Luigi, who had been absent ever since the morning.

There had been frequent quarrels before between father and son about Luigi's stopping out late, and now it was past midnight.

There was no light in the room except a faint flicker from the embers, and the feeble glimmering of the starlight which entered through the open windows.

A noise was heard in the stable underneath the room, and the father, thinking it was the son, called out three or four times, but got no answer.