At sight of so fair a vision Pietro was undone; he fell violently in love with her long before he exchanged a word with her, and although no one knew better than he the gulf that separated the daughter of a nobleman and a Senator from the drudge of the quill, he determined to win her.  Youth and good-looks such as his, with plenty of assurance to support them, had done as much for others, and they should do it for him.  How they first met we know not, but we know that shortly after this momentous meeting Bianca had completely lost her heart to the knight of the quill, with the handsome face, the dark, flashing eyes, and the courtly manner.

Other meetings followed—­secret rendezvous arranged by the duenna herself in return for liberal bribes—­to keep which Bianca would steal out of her father’s palace at dead of night, leaving the door open behind her to ensure safe return before dawn.  On one such occasion, so the story runs, Bianca returned to find the door closed against her by a too officious hand.  She dared not wake the sleepers to gain admittance—­that would be to expose her secret and to cover herself with disgrace—­and in her fears and alarm she fled back to her lover.

However this may be, we know that, for some urgent reason or other, the young lovers disappeared one night together from Venice and made their way to Florence to find a refuge under the roof of Pietro’s parents.  Here a terrible disillusion met Bianca at the threshold.  Her husband—­for, on the runaway journey, Pietro had secured the friendly services of a village priest to marry them—­had told her that he was the son of noble parents, kin to his employers, the Salviatis.  The home to which he now introduced her was little better than a hovel, with poverty looking out of its windows.

Here indeed was a sorry home-coming for the new-made bride, daughter of the great Capello!  There was not even a drudge to do the housework, which Bianca was compelled to share with her bucolic mother-in-law.  It is even said that she was compelled to do laundry-work in order to keep the domestic purse supplied.  Her husband had forfeited his meagre salary; she had equally sacrificed the fortune left to her by her mother.  Sordid, grinding poverty stared both in the face.

To return to her own home in Venice was impossible.  So furious were her father and stepmother at her escapade that a large reward was advertised for the capture of her husband, “alive or dead,” and a sentence of death had been procured from the Council of Ten in the event of his arrest.  More than this, a sentence of banishment was pronounced against Pietro and Bianca; the maid who had connived at their illicit wooing and flight paid for her treachery with her life; and Pietro’s uncle ended his days in a loathsome dungeon.

Such was the vengeance taken by Bartolomeo Capello.  As for the runaways, they spent a long honeymoon in concealment and hourly dread of the fate that hung over them.  It was well known, however, in Florence where they were in hiding; and curious crowds were drawn to the Bonaventuri hovel to catch a glimpse of the heroes of a scandal with which all Italy was ringing.  Thus it was that Francesco de Medici first set eyes on the woman who was to play so great a part in his life.