Chiarenza is the setting for a decisive turn in Alatiel’s journey: after reaching the city amid a chain of killings at sea, she finds protection and is treated as the wife of the Prince of the Morea, only to be abducted by the Duke of Athens. Her stay makes the city at once a haven, a courtly stage on which her beauty attracts new desire, and the place where private violence becomes a public cause for war.

Setting and Arrival

Chiarenza, identified in a note as modern Klarentza, lies on the route of a vessel bound there from a harbor where two young Genoese served as masters. Marato arranged to take Alatiel aboard that ship after killing his brother Pericone and stealing away with her. The voyage did not bring lasting safety: the two Genoese shipmasters, each intent on possessing Alatiel, turned against one another, and one died while the other was gravely wounded. The wounded man and Alatiel nevertheless reached Chiarenza, where she went ashore with him and lodged at an inn.

The city is thus introduced not through a description of its streets or institutions but through movement into it: a ship arrives bearing a survivor and a captive whose successive changes of circumstance have left her without reliable protection. The inn offers a temporary shelter after the violence aboard ship. Yet Alatiel’s beauty quickly becomes public knowledge, and that attention brings her within reach of a new and more powerful suitor.

A Courtly Refuge

The Prince of the Morea was then at Chiarenza. Hearing reports of Alatiel’s beauty, he wanted to see her; after meeting her, he judged her lovelier than the reports had suggested and became intensely enamoured. The wounded shipmaster’s kinsfolk, learning of the prince’s desire, sent Alatiel to him without waiting for further developments. The prince welcomed this arrangement, while Alatiel was relieved to leave what seemed to her a perilous situation.

At court, the prince interpreted her royal bearing as evidence that she must be a noblewoman, although he could not discover who she was. He therefore treated her not as a mistress but as his wife. Alatiel, worn by her troubles and feeling herself adequately settled, recovered her spirits; her beauty flourished again, and talk of it spread through Roumelia. Chiarenza gives her a period of apparent security, but that security rests on the prince’s favour and on the desirability that repeatedly draws powerful men toward her.

The Duke’s Visit and Abduction

The Duke of Athens, a young and handsome kinsman and friend of the prince, heard of Alatiel’s beauty and came to Chiarenza under the appearance of making an ordinary visit. The prince received him honourably and entertained him sumptuously. When the two men discussed the reports about Alatiel, the prince invited the duke to judge her appearance for himself. They visited her lodging together; because she understood little or nothing of their language, the conversation was limited, and both men looked at her. The duke became so passionately enamoured that his desire outweighed his honour and his obligations to his kinsman.

He arranged his departure in secret with Ciuriaci, a chamberlain of the prince, and prepared his horses and baggage. One night he went to Alatiel’s bedside and, while she slept, lay with her; she believed him to be the prince. He then had her carried out through a private door and took her away on horseback with his men. Because he already had a wife, he did not bring Alatiel to Athens, but kept her secretly at a well-appointed residence outside the city. Chiarenza is the point of departure for this deception and abduction: the prince’s guest becomes the man who removes the woman entrusted to the prince’s household.

Death and Political Consequences

The prince’s courtiers initially assumed that he had gone away privately with Alatiel. The next day, however, an idiot dragged Ciuriaci’s body from ruins; people who followed him found the prince’s corpse there as well. The discovery caused grief throughout the city. Seeking the perpetrators, its people noted that the Duke of Athens had secretly departed with Alatiel and concluded that he had committed the crime. The dead prince’s brother was installed as successor and urged to take vengeance.

The new prince assembled a powerful army and set out against the duke, who in turn gathered forces for his defence. The conflict widened when other rulers and their relatives became involved. Chiarenza’s importance in this episode lies in the sequence that joins personal desire to public consequence: the duke’s visit to the city leads to an abduction, the prince’s disappearance is followed by the discovery of his murder, and the city’s mourning gives way to preparations for war. Alatiel’s temporary refuge therefore becomes the setting from which another upheaval in her fortunes begins.