Accordingly, in September 1583, under the excuse of a pilgrimage to Loreto, he contrived to meet Vittoria at Trevi, whence he carried her in triumph to Bracciano.  Here he openly acknowledged her as his wife, installing her with all the splendour due to a sovereign duchess.  On the 10th of October following, he once more performed the marriage ceremony in the principal church of his fief; and in the January of 1584 he brought her openly to Rome.  This act of contumacy to the Pope, both as feudal superior and as supreme Pontiff, roused all the former opposition to his marriage.  Once more it was declared invalid.  Once more the Duke pretended to give way.  But at this juncture Gregory died; and while the conclave was sitting for the election of the new Pope, he resolved to take the law into his own hands, and to ratify his union with Vittoria by a third and public marriage in Rome.  On the morning of the 24th of April 1585, their nuptials were accordingly once more solemnised in the Orsini palace.  Just one hour after the ceremony, as appears from the marriage register, the news arrived of Cardinal Montalto’s election to the Papacy, Vittoria lost no time in paying her respects to Camilla, sister of the new Pope, her former mother-in-law.  The Duke visited Sixtus V. in state to compliment him on his elevation.  But the reception which both received proved that Rome was no safe place for them to live in.  They consequently made up their minds for flight.

A chronic illness from which Bracciano had lately suffered furnished a sufficient pretext.  This seems to have been something of the nature of a cancerous ulcer, which had to be treated by the application of raw meat to open sores.  Such details are only excusable in the present narrative on the ground that Bracciano’s disease considerably affects our moral judgment of the woman who could marry a man thus physically tainted, and with her husband’s blood upon his hands.  At any rate, the Duke’s lupa justified his trying what change of air, together with the sulphur waters of Abano, would do for him.

The Duke and Duchess arrived in safety at Venice, where they had engaged the Dandolo palace on the Zuecca.  There they only stayed a few days, removing to Padua, where they had hired palaces of the Foscari in the Arena and a house called De’ Cavalli.  At Salo, also, on the Lake of Garda, they provided themselves with fit dwellings for their princely state and their large retinues, intending to divide their time between the pleasures which the capital of luxury afforded and the simpler enjoyments of the most beautiful of the Italian lakes.  But la gioia dei profani e un fumo passaggier.  Paolo Giordano Orsini, Duke of Bracciano, died suddenly at Salo on the 10th of November 1585, leaving the young and beautiful Vittoria helpless among enemies.  What was the cause of his death?  It is not possible to give a clear and certain answer.  We have seen that he suffered from a horrible and voracious disease,