because the plot involved giving laudanum to her father, which she perceived as poison – promises the Virgin that she shall never see Fabrice again and will do anything her father says. Gina puts in motion a plan to have the Prince of Parma assassinated. This plot is carried out by a poet/bandit/assassin Ferrante who has fallen in unrequited love with Gina. Count Mosca stays in Parma, and when the Prince does die (it is strongly implied that he was poisoned by Ferrante) he puts down a revolt by some local revolutionaries and installs the son of the Prince on the throne. The new Prince (only 21 years old) falls in love with Gina. When the prosecutor's indictments come close to the truth behind the uprising, Gina persuades the Prince to burn the documents. Count Mosca, committed to installing Fabrice as the Vicar General, persuades Gina and Fabrice that Fabrice voluntarily return to be acquitted. Instead of going to the town jail, Fabrice voluntarily returns to the Farnese Tower to be close to Clelia. Seeking revenge, General Conti attempts to poison Fabrice, but Clelia keeps him from eating the poisoned food. A distraught Gina seeks the Prince's intervention to have him transferred, and he agrees to do so on the condition she gives herself to him. Gina so promises in duress. After three months, the Prince proposes marriage to Gina but is rejected. Gina submits to his physical demands and leaves immediately afterward. Gina never returns but marries Count Mosca. Clélia marries the wealthy Marchese her father has chosen for her, and Clelia and Fabrice live unhappily. Once acquitted, Fabrice assumes his duties as the Vicar General in the Catholic Church, and his sermons become the talk of the town. The only reason he gives these sermons, Fabrice says, is in the hope that Clélia will come to one, allowing him to see her and speak to her. After fourteen months of suffering for both, she agrees to meet with him every night, on the condition that it is in darkness, lest she break her vow to the Madonna to never see him again and they both be punished for her sin. A year later she bears Fabrice's child. When the boy is two years old, Fabrice insists that he should take care of him in the future, because he is feeling lonely and worries that his own child will