LEGEND OF THE DEAD BRIDE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1877, 11 April 1889, Page 3

LEGEND OF THE DEAD BRIDE.

One of the streets of Florence is known as the ' Via del Morti,' the way (or street) of the dead. Many years ago a beautiful Italian Princess was sought in marriage by two nobles —Prince G-oudi and Count Aldobrandi —whose palaces stand at either end of the short and narrow street. The Prince was successful in his suit, but in less than a year the beautiful young woman died, and her body was placed in the crypt beneath the cathedral, the coffin and the iron door of the vault being left open, as is still the custom in Tuscany so that if the person supposed dead comes to life he may escape being buried alive. In the middle of the night after the funeral Prince Goudi was startled by

I a knock at the outer door. The ! porter fell in a swoon, and the Prince rushed to a chapel in the palace and fell praying before the altar, beseeching protection against his dead wife's ghost. For days all Florence rang with a story of how Prince G-oudi was haunted with his wife's ghost, and then the excitement gradually died away, When the porter swooned and the Prince fled to the altar, the white figure slipped out of the house and went to that of her old suitor, Count Aldobrandi. .There she knocked

feebly, but the porter was asleep, and the master of the house came to open the door. The Princess fell at his feet, and he lifted her up and called upon the women in his household to care for her. After a week had passed, no one knowing the facts, the Count applied to the patriarch of the cathedral and asked: "Holy father, if a woman is declared dead and receives the sacred office of the Church, returns to life, is repulsed by her husband, is received and taken care of by a friend of her living days, who may claim her?"

The venerable priest said the ques-

tion was so weighty that the Pope must answer it, and he replied that the one who had rescued her could claim her. It was soon announced that the Count Aldobrandi would wed a noble lady long a stranger in Florence, and he requested his friend G-oudi to give away the bride, her parents not being present. At the appointed day, before the altar of the chapel in the duomo, the marriage took place. The question was asked, "Who gives this woman to be the wife of this man ?'' Prince Goudi stepped forward, but not until he had taken her hand did he know that he was bestowing his own bride upon another. For years Count Aldobrandi and his wife lived happily together, and at this late day a descendant of Prince Goudi tells the story a 3 an historical fact.