Spots 
Senator Michele Pignaver resolves to marry his seventeen-year-old niece Ortensia to showcase her beauty alongside his mediocre musical compositions. Ortensia recognizes his miserly self-importance and resignedly accepts her fate, knowing custom offers no alternative. She finds quiet solace in the certainty of outliving him, while Pignaver plans to parade her talent across Venice without spending a single ducat.
CHAPTER IToC
Ortensia and her music master Alessandro Stradella fall deeply in love, prompting her to utter brazen falsehoods to her uncle without hesitation. Her nurse Pina aids the deception by openly mocking the idea of romantic interest in a lowly musician. Stradella, previously accustomed to fleeting love affairs, realizes this devotion carries irreversible consequences that defy social boundaries and courtly prudence.
CHAPTER IIToC → CHAPTER IVToC
Trombin and Gambardella stand in the gloom of a Venetian church, their refined manners contrasting sharply with their fraying doublets and plain steel rapiers. Stripped of their ancestral seats in the Grand Council, the two swordsmen maintain a strict code of honor while calculating how to survive in a city that offers no credit. Hunger and threadbare sleeves drive them to consider any lucrative employment outside Venice.
CHAPTER VToC → CHAPTER VIToC
Pignaver hires the two Bravi inside a basilica to assassinate Stradella and retrieve Ortensia, paying one hundred ducats upfront. Meanwhile, the fugitives reach Ferrara exhausted, accompanied by Stradella's hunchback servant Cucurullo. Believing violent death could arrive at any moment, Cucurullo stays awake through the night to ensure his master and Ortensia are canonically married before any assassin strikes.
CHAPTER VIIToC → CHAPTER VIIIToC
Stradella is arrested in Ferrara under false charges of counterfeiting, leaving Ortensia and Pina turned out onto the street by a fearful innkeeper. Cucurullo leverages the common dread of his hump's uncanny influence to command respect and press the host for details. He systematically refutes the accusations, warning the host that mistreating a musician favored by Papal cardinals will bring severe retribution from Rome.
CHAPTER IXToC → CHAPTER XToC
Gambardella secures entry to the Ursuline convent in Ferrara to track Ortensia, confronting Mother Superior Agatha, whom he abandoned ten years earlier. Confronted by her fierce moral authority, the hardened Bravo feels genuine remorse for his fallen state. He resolves to manipulate both his Venetian employer and his contract, scheming to unite the young lovers rather than surrender Ortensia to Pignaver's cruelty.
CHAPTER XIToC → CHAPTER XIIIToC
On a moonlit Roman balcony overlooking the Vatican Hill, Stradella serenades Ortensia before their move to the Palazzo Altieri. They debate the true nature of value, with Stradella arguing that physical grace is common in nature, whereas artistic genius and rare devotion hold absolute worth. Ortensia accepts that true love outshines social prestige, finding comfort in his music as the moon dips out of sight.
CHAPTER XIVToC → CHAPTER XVIToC
Queen Christina gathers Rome's elite at the Palazzo Riario for a festival of poetry and music, where Ortensia makes her society debut. Don Alberto Altieri draws Ortensia into a quiet hall of antique sculptures to press his suit, dismissing her defenders as common cut-throats. Ortensia parries his insinuations with calm composure, refusing to let courtly authority or lavish surroundings sway her devotion to Stradella.
CHAPTER XVIIToC
Over a late supper in the servants' quarters, Cucurullo recounts how Stradella dove into stormy seas to rescue him after sailors threw him overboard for bad luck. This debt of life inspires Cucurullo and Pina to remain vigilant against Don Alberto's predatory designs on Ortensia. Cucurullo secretly engages Trombin and Gambardella to guard the couple, trusting their lethal blades to thwart any noble intrigue.
CHAPTER XVIIIToC → CHAPTER XIXToC
As Ortensia prepares her trunks for Naples, she confronts Pina over admitting Don Alberto into her rooms. Pina breaks down, revealing her crippled thumb and past torture at the hands of authorities, explaining that Don Alberto threatened her with imprisonment and renewed torment. Moved by pity for her nurse's terror, Ortensia forgives the betrayal and promises to take her safely south away from Papal reach.
CHAPTER XXToC
Following a triumphant performance at the Lateran, Stradella is separated from his wife by Don Alberto's maneuvering and Trombin's false reports of her sudden illness. Stradella rushes home to find Ortensia missing and Pina overcome with feverish terror. Realizing an abduction has occurred, Stradella muffles himself in his cloak and searches the dark streets of Rome, unaware of the trap set behind the Baptistery.
CHAPTER XXIToC → CHAPTER XXIIToC
After escaping an ambush in Via di Santa Sabina where the Bravi turned on Don Alberto, a wounded Ortensia marches directly to Cardinal Paluzzo Altieri at sunrise. She surrenders Don Alberto's bribe of one thousand gold ducats and exposes his attempt to abduct her. Astonished by her bravery and clear evidence, the Cardinal moves to protect Papal honor, ordering Stradella's immediate release from prison.
CHAPTER XXIIIToC
F. Marion Crawford constructs compelling novels by combining meticulous regional atmosphere with tight, logical plot development. From Roman social intrigue to exotic international settings, his stories maintain relentless dramatic tension while portraying complex human motives. Readers gain an appreciation for historical romance that balances realistic character detail with sweeping, imaginative storytelling.
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
A reader gains a vivid glimpse into seventeenth-century Italian romance, dramatic intrigue, and the enduring power of artistic devotion.