AN ITALIAN TRAGEDY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 46, 8 January 1862, Page 1 (Supplement)

AN ITALIAN TRAGEDY.

In the Track of the Garibaldians through Italy and Sicily. By Algernon Sydney BickKELT,.

"You see ihe house close to the sea, Excellcnza. which wants painting so badly, where there is a green shutter swinging up and down in the breeze ? I assented. " "Well, it is deserted now. Or.cc, however, it wks the home of the greatest beauty of Syracuse, and I must tell you her history." Here he made the sign of the cress, and muilevcd to himself, I suppose, a prayer for his heroine's memory—and then continued thus:—"A certain Neapolitan, named Giovanni, nonr.na'ly holding a small -Government appointment at Catania—secretly a suirro — made the acquaintance, at a public entertainment, of Madalena, the only child of Signor B——, a respectable though poor citizen of Syracuse, and afterwards paid his addresses to herThe lady favored bis suit, but her father refused Ins assent, on the giound of the pay the employe received being 100 little for him to support a wife. However, after a month, se2ing that in so small a town it was next to impossible to find any one richer, and also that they remained attached to one another, he withdrew his opposition, and the ensuing summer was fixed for the wedding. Everything now went merry as a marriage bell, and when the day drew near enough for the arrangements of the feast and ceremony to be discussed, to facilitate matters, the lover—sadly contrary to our English notions of etiquette—was at bis own request invited to stay some time in the house with his bethrothed. Before long it began to be i umou: ed that there was another lady in the field to whom he had more recently engaged himself, and that he was only trifling with the Syracusan Signora's affections till he could find a convenient excuse for breaking off the match ; and as the rival /air one was said to be in Naples, whither he had been sent a short time before on a Government mission, and whence the post often brought letters to the house addressed in a lady's hand, there appeared some foundation for the report. That something was wrong there could be no doubt, at least if Madelena's pale face, surprised by her father more than once bedewed with tears, and her anxiously repeated requests that the marriage should be hastened, meant anything. After considering what course he should pursue, Signor B determined on one that, under ordinary circumstances, would have been highly dishonorable, but which might perhaps be justified in the pi-asent instance by it being the only method of ascertaining the real truth (for the lady's ,/iancrf of course would not own duplicity even if he were guilty of it), he resolved to open and read the next letter that arrived. In a day or two a letter c-ttine, bearing, as usual, the Naples postmark, and it was opened. 'I, Madame S- promise to pay the Signor Giovanni two hundred piastres on the day he delivers Mademoiselle Madelena B at m/ establishment, Vico di , as * * * &c.' Horror and dismay ! What was this I The paper wont on to stipulate that the girl's chastity was the olject of bargain. She was, on some pretext, to be duped into going to Naples,—before the marriage if possible,—anyhow, before the honeymoon w:is far advanced, and there drugged and sold by Giovanni to Madame . Fortunately for the shirro he was absent on business at Catania when this happened, so Signor B , unable to contain bis rage till he could have a personal interview, sent him the Neapolitan contract, together with a mite couched in terms I need not particularise. But, either to spare his daughter annoyance, or tl: inking it would be useless, or from sheer Italian apathy, he made no complaint to the monster's superiors. A week afterwards the house, was rt.'ibed of the few valuables it contained, and a ki.ife, once a present from Madalena, lying on the fl-.or in the rushmatting, disclosed the thief. Strange to say, the loss of property excited greater anger than tbe plot against the daughter's -.:iour, for a statement of the facts, with a do-.i-..ind for inquiry, was this time immediately aduu.'ssed to the proper authorities, although the siime day a letter came from Giovanni (who had aii'.icipated this), threatening summary vengeance if any measures were taken against him. Once thoroughly aroused, however, Signor B cared nothing for menaces, and adhered to his com:■>':.i.in -, but took the precaution of keeping a Juu.iv.-d i>isiol, and never leaving his house. It was well he did so, for before many days had passed ■\\ v aro-iscd in the middle of the night by shrieks fiiun Mudalenn's room, which was at the back on tire ground floor. Hurrying to where she slept, v i'ound the shirro, with a mask partly torn off lik face, endeavouring to drag his daughter in her ni.: ht-dress through the window of her room by niiilu force to a boat which was waiting beyond a n.-::-row piece of waste ground between the house in ■! beach. Upon Signor B 's arrival, the lb-.i- of capture, and perhaps, more than all, the rc;.o;-t of the pistol, which he had. instantly fired at Uiovnnni, made the abductor decamp, and lie sui.-cucdi.-d in getting clear oft! The following day Signor B was arrested and thrown into pr! -on, charged by his wonld-be son-in-law, who h;. i boon only slightly wounded, with attempting to murder him in the execution of his duty when presenting himself the previous evening with a win-rant to search the premises for treasonable papers ; and there was a second indictment for hi! v'mg unlawful weapons in his possession. In vain the victim of this Satanic piece of cunning re-stated 1 is original complaint against his enemy, coupled with an additional account of the other facts, previously concealed, the only answer returned was, that he would not have accepted him as Madalena's future husband if he had been so bf.l a man, and that of course he had trumped up a story to damage the character of his accuser, with a view of protecting hvnself; moreover, th.it Giovanni's conduct, which allowed no pangs of ;>ily for the friend to indue" him to' show favor to :he conspirator, was above all praise. In the m-van time, whilst the father languished in a dungu.n at Moureale, the daughter" gave birth to a child, —pledge of her too confiding love, born alive, though prematurely, owing to the shocks sl-,0 had received. Then grief, shame, and despair, together with the want of the commonest necessaries after her confinement, —for her father being taken away, she was totally dependant on the clarity of her neighbours, even for the mums of sustenance, —worked upon the young mother's brain, and, in a fit of frenzy she drowned the child in the harbour. The current washed the bo ly on shore—a gendarme conveyed Madalena to prison. After tedious delays, the trial of both tiiilier and daughter took place ; and then the shirro, appearing as the principal witness for the prosecution, actually gave testimony of his own infamy. The night attack and the Neapolitan arrangement he denied, but he avowed the murdered infant was his, and that he knew the Signora's condition ; in short, he declared that all th-3 charges against him had been fabricated because he refused, in the first place, to fulfil an engagement to a woman, afterwards found of fragile virtue, and in the second, because, in attempting to search the house, he had, Spartan-like, sacrificed feeling to a rigid sense of duty. For the defence, amongst overwhelming proofs of this wretch's vileness, it was stated, that since Madalcia's arrest, he had visited her in her cell, and oilered to secure the acquittal both of her father and herself if she would become his mistaess and lire with him in Naple/. The court found both prisoners guilty. The laiher of having by arms resisted a servant of the State, and sought to murder him in the execution of his office. Sentence : ' Death ;' commuted, by the clemency of his most Adorable Sovereign Lord, the King, to imprisonment, with hard labour, in the galleys for thirty years. The daughter of having connived at her father's crime, instead of denouncing it, and of having murdered her'child. Sentence,- ---' To receive fifty stripes and undergo five years' solitary confinement,' —a waste of trouble, for on hearing it she fell dead." And what became of G iovanni ? I asked. "He was removed to Palermo, for he was not safe from the people of Catania ; and the Gazette soon afterwards contained an announcement that he had received a decoration ' as a special reward for faithful service.' But he did not enjoy it long, for the next time he went to Messina he was waylaid upon the road and assassinated by some persons unknown. [ The corpse was found so terribly mutilated as scarcely to be recognisable, and on the breast was a card pinned, on which was written—' Remember Madalena!'"