Agnesa’s identity is confirmed and her marriage arranged when an armed rivalry over her nearly ends in violence. The disturbance exposes a family history long obscured by war: Agnesa, raised by Giacomino da Pavia, is recognized as the daughter of Bernabuccio, who had believed her dead. A scar above her ear confirms the recognition, turning a threatened abduction into a family reunion and, finally, a marriage to Minghino.

The Rivalry and the Abduction Attempt

Agnesa lived in Giacomino da Pavia’s household, where a maid’s help had allowed Minghino di Mingole to court her. Giannole di Severino, another suitor, had a different ally: Crivello. Neither young man knew of the other’s plan. When Giacomino was invited away to supper, the maid told Minghino that the house would be accessible at a signal, while Crivello separately told Giannole to wait for his own signal and then enter.

That evening, the rivals arrived with armed companions, each suspicious of the other. Minghino’s party waited at a neighbor’s house; Giannole and his companions kept their distance from Agnesa’s home. Inside, Crivello and the maid each tried to get the other to leave, neither understanding the full plan. When Crivello gave the signal, Giannole entered with two companions and tried to carry Agnesa away. She and the maid cried out and struggled. Hearing them, Minghino and his companions rushed in, drew their swords, and drove back the men dragging Agnesa through the door. Neighbors joined the confrontation with lights and weapons, condemning Giannole’s violence and supporting Minghino, who brought Agnesa safely back into the house.

The disturbance brought the town captain’s officers, who arrested many of those involved, including Minghino, Giannole, and Crivello. When Giacomino returned and learned what had happened, he was distressed. Once he understood that Agnesa had not been responsible for the affair, he was partly appeased and resolved to arrange her marriage as soon as possible, so that a similar incident would not recur.

The Story of Agnesa’s Lost Family

The next morning, relatives of the imprisoned young men appealed to Giacomino. He answered that the matter concerned them as well as him: Agnesa was not, as many supposed, from Cremona or Pavia, but a native of Faenza. Neither Giacomino nor the man from whom he had received her had known who her parents were.

Giacomino then recounted what Guidotto da Cremona had told him on his deathbed. During the sack of Faenza by Emperor Frederick, Guidotto and his companions entered a house filled with plunder. Its inhabitants had fled, leaving behind a little girl of about two years old. When Guidotto came upstairs, the child called him father. Taking pity on her, he carried her away to Fano with the goods taken from the house. Before dying, he left the girl and what remained of her possessions to Giacomino, charging him to arrange her marriage in due time and provide as her dowry the property that had been hers.

Giacomino explained that he had not yet found a suitable occasion to marry her, though he had wanted to do so before. The disclosure changed the meaning of the suitors’ dispute: Agnesa was not simply a young woman under Giacomino’s guardianship, but the child of a family that had lost her in the violence and confusion of Faenza’s capture.

Recognition by the Scar

Among those listening was Guiglielmino da Medicina, who had been with Guidotto during the sack. He recognized the description of the household and told Bernabuccio that he believed Agnesa was the little daughter Bernabuccio had lost in those troubles. Bernabuccio remembered that his daughter had been about the age Giacomino described. To establish the connection, he recalled a cross-shaped scar above her left ear, left by the removal of a tumor when she was very young.

With Giacomino’s permission, Bernabuccio went to see Agnesa and asked to examine the mark. Lifting the hair above her left ear, he found the cross-shaped scar. He embraced her in tears and explained that Guidotto had plundered his house; Agnesa had been left behind when her mother and the other inhabitants fled, and the family had believed she perished when the house burned that same day.

Agnesa initially resisted the embrace, seeing an older man she did not know. As he explained what had happened, however, she began to believe him and yielded to his embrace, weeping with him as though moved by an instinctive recognition. Bernabuccio sent for her mother, siblings, and other relatives, then brought Agnesa home amid repeated embraces and rejoicing. The reunion restored to her the family and history that had been missing from her life, while confirming the account Giacomino had inherited from Guidotto.

Marriage and Resolution

The recognition also altered the consequences of the arrests. The town captain learned that Giannole was Bernabuccio’s son and therefore Agnesa’s brother. He chose to overlook the offense and released Giannole, Minghino, Crivello, and the others implicated in the affair. The threatened abduction was thus reclassified by the discovery of kinship: Giannole had tried to seize his own sister, though he did not know who she was.

The captain then helped reconcile the young men and arranged for Agnesa to marry Minghino, to the satisfaction of both families. Minghino celebrated the marriage with a splendid wedding, took Agnesa to his home, and lived with her in peace and prosperity for many years. The ending binds together recognition, release, reconciliation, and marriage: the identifying scar resolves the mystery of Agnesa’s birth, while the family settlement converts a public brawl into a lasting domestic union.