Bertella

Bertella is the youngest daughter in a wealthy Marseille merchant’s family, and one of three sisters whose secret flight from home turns an ambitious escape into a chain of reversals. At fourteen, she leaves with Ughetto for Crete, where the fugitives briefly live in comfort; after her sister Maddalena is murdered, Bertella and Ughetto are accused of the crime, escape custody through bribery, and end their story in poverty on Rhodes.

Identity and Family Background

Bertella’s father, Narnald Cluada, is a very wealthy merchant from Marseilles who is away in Spain on business when the story begins. His three eldest daughters are the focus of the family’s marriage plans: the twin elder sisters, Ninetta and Maddalena, are fifteen, while Bertella is fourteen. Her youth places her within a household whose future is being arranged by relatives, but the story gives her a role in a decisive act of departure rather than a marriage negotiated at home.

Bertella is loved by Ughetto, a wealthy young man whose father is dead. The two form one of three couples connected through Ninetta’s lover, Restagnone. Restagnone proposes that Ughetto and Folco pool their wealth with his, then leave with the sisters to make a life elsewhere. The plan treats money, escape, and romantic partnership as parts of a single undertaking; Bertella is the intended companion of Ughetto in that projected new household.

Flight to Crete and Brief Prosperity

Ninetta knows her sisters’ feelings and persuades them to embrace the venture. On the appointed night, the three sisters open a large coffer belonging to their father and take a great quantity of money and jewels. They meet their lovers, board the brigantine, and row out to sea. After reaching Genoa, they continue from port to port and arrive in Crete before the eighth day.

The fugitives buy substantial estates near Candia and build handsome houses. They live like lords, with abundant servants, hounds, hawks, and horses, enjoying the prosperity that the stolen family wealth and the young men’s resources have made possible. Bertella’s story therefore moves quickly from a secret departure under her father’s authority to an apparently secure life abroad, shared with Ughetto and the other couples.

Murder, Accusation, and Flight

That security collapses after Restagnone grows tired of Ninetta and pursues a local woman. Ninetta’s jealousy and reproaches intensify the conflict, and the duke who desires Maddalena becomes involved in the crisis. When the duke’s household is deceived into believing Ninetta has been killed, Folco discovers that she is alive in the palace. Maddalena eventually tells him how Ninetta came to be there; in rage, Folco kills her and then deceives Ninetta into leaving with him. He takes her away by night, and the two disappear.

The next day, Maddalena’s murder is discovered. People hostile to Ughetto accuse him to the duke, who seizes him and Bertella before they know that Folco and Ninetta have departed. Under pressure, they are compelled to confess themselves guilty along with Folco. The story does not present Bertella as having taken part in Maddalena’s murder: the confession is extracted from the couple after their arrest, and they face the consequences of an accusation they did not anticipate.

Consequences and Narrative Role

Bertella and Ughetto save themselves by bribing their guards with money they had hidden at home for emergencies. They escape by night without time to take any of their other possessions and flee to Rhodes, where they live only a short while in poverty and distress. The contrast with their estates near Candia is sharp: the same flight that first seemed to promise an independent, abundant life ends with their security reduced to a concealed reserve and an escape across the sea.

Bertella is not given an independent speech or a separate account of her feelings. Her part is traced through the collective decisions of the sisters and couples, then through the consequences of the murder and false accusation. Her trajectory gives the episode its final reversal: the lovers’ attempt to leave family constraints behind brings them wealth for a time, but the chain of jealousy, deception, violence, and suspicion carries Bertella and Ughetto into exile and poverty.