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MEMOIRS 
 
 HENRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
(2yi^//;' 
 
 
 ,oji(lori4:i'ii.-iraB™tJc'>M''!-'^ 
 
MEMOIRS 
 
 HENRIETTA CARACCIOLO, 
 
 OF THE PllINCES OF FORINO, 
 
 EX-BENEDICTINE NUN. 
 
 Votum feci, 
 Giatiam accepi. 
 
 FROM THE ITALIAN. 
 
 A NEW EDITION, ij'^ 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 li»!hl..- 
 
 EICHABD BENTLEY, NEW BUELINQTON STEBET 
 1865. 
 
LOKDON,: PRINTED BY W. CLOT^'ES AND SONS, BTAWFOED STREET, 
 AUD CUAaiKG CEOSS. 
 
TO THE READER. 
 
 My sole aim in writing these Memoirs has been to 
 confirm, as far as lay in my power, with argument 
 drawn from fact, the opportune and just decree of the 
 Italian Government in the suppression of Convents, 
 and to disabuse the minds of those (if haply any such 
 remain) who deem these places the repositories of all 
 the religious virtues. 
 
 That the class of persons immured in them is one 
 useless to society all know ; but that is not enough. 
 I have proposed, by unveiling the intimacy of their 
 lives, to exhibit this class as even baneful to it — as 
 representing a class of ideas in opposition and hostility 
 to the ideas not only of men distinguished as the 
 thinkers of the age, but those already rooted in the 
 public and general opinion. 
 
 Had the Cloister never existed, we should not have 
 had the countless instances of the young immured in 
 inaccessible prisons through the heartlessness of selfish 
 
vi TO THE READER. 
 
 parents or the persuasion of the confessor — young life 
 cut off from all earthly aflPections, and, in sad repent- 
 ance of a vow, sinking into a premature grave after a 
 most unhappy existence. 
 
 I am aware that the number of the partisans of 
 Monachism, both clerical and laical, amounts to no 
 mean cipher; and I am prepared to hear, in their 
 objection to this, that if the above were true, a part 
 at least, if not all of these, would avail themselves 
 of the liberty now at their disposal, whilst in these 
 southern provinces of Italy we may observe the 
 contrary. 
 
 To this 1 may reply, that the principal, if not the 
 only, solicitude of the confessors of these unhappy 
 victims being to demoralise and contract their minds, 
 implanting maxims which certainly are not those of 
 the Gospel, painting a dark abyss beyond the cloister 
 walls, and denouncing the wrath of Heaven and the 
 thunders of Rome as ready to break upon the head of 
 such as should seek or desire to pass from them — can 
 it be wondered if, under such nurture and discipline 
 (in many cases from earliest infancy), the narrowed, 
 the enfeebled mind should shrink superstitiously from 
 
TO THE READER, VH 
 
 a freer air of heaven and the contact of more humane 
 influences ? 
 
 The facts which I narrate belonging to our own day, 
 I cannot well be taxed with exaggeration when it will 
 cost so little to arrive at the truth. I cite date, and 
 place, and person ; it lies within the power of all to 
 verify these. 
 
 I have chosen rather to suppress much — to have left 
 in the shade many a recital not unworthy of being drawn 
 into clearer light. The loss is entirely my own, having 
 not unfrequently deprived these Memoirs of the advan- 
 tage of that colouring and dramatic relief which would 
 have made them more attractive. To this I was lu-ged 
 by respect for the memory of the dead, for the sake of 
 those who still survive, and frequently for what was 
 due to myself. 
 
 Henrietta Caeacciolo, 
 Castellamare {Naples), 1864. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Chap. Paob 
 
 I. — Eably Yeaks 1 
 
 n. — FiRflT Loves 7 
 
 in. — Jealottst 16 
 
 IV. — M0TJBNIN& 30 
 
 V. — The Cloisteb 35 
 
 VI. — ^Deseetion 49 
 
 VII.— "Their Eeverences" 68 
 
 Vin. — Scenes and Customs 79 
 
 IX.— The Bell 108 
 
 X. — The Pbofessioit 130 
 
 XL— The "Chabitt" OF Nuns 146 
 
 Xn. — Theib Povbbty and Humility 154 
 
 Xin. — Insajstity OP Nuns 164 
 
 XIV. — Convent Thieves 187 
 
 XV. — Acolytes 196 
 
 XVL— Chiabina 207 
 
 XVn.— Cabdinal EL4.EI0 216 
 
 XVm.— 1848 236 
 
 h 
 
X CONTENTS. 
 
 Chap. Pack 
 
 XIX. — The " Consebvatoeio di Costantinopoli " .. 248 
 
 XX.— The " Annunziata " OF Capua 266 
 
 XXL— The Arrest 281 
 
 XXII. — The " EiTiRO DI MoNDRAGOXE " 295 
 
 XXIII.— A Brief Eespite 327 
 
 XXIV.— Spies 337 
 
 XXV,— Liberty 352 
 
HENRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 EARLY YEARS. 
 
 It Is from no desire to vaunt a distinguished descent, 
 but as the duty of a narrator, and to show by what 
 means the native aristocracy were debased under the 
 Bourbon rule, without a corresponding advantage to 
 the other classes, that I mention that one of the oldest 
 and most distinguished families of Naples is that of 
 Caracciolo, to which I have the honour to belong. 
 
 My father, the second son of Gennaro Caracciolo, 
 Prince of Forino, was born in 1764. He was destined 
 to the career of arms ; the portion of younger children 
 under the law of primogeniture which existed at the 
 period at which he came into the world, being but a 
 scanty one. At forty years of age he married a young 
 lady of Palermo, who had hardly reached her four-, 
 teenth year. 
 
 Theresa Cutelli (such was the maiden's name), aflep 
 
 B 
 
2 HENRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 having borne him four other daughters, gave birth to 
 myself on the 17th February, 1821, and I was chris- 
 tened Henrietta after a sister of my father — a Bene- 
 dictine nun — one of the innumerable sacrifices which 
 my race had consecrated to this Order. 
 
 I was born iu Naples, in the palace of my ancestors, 
 a few weeks before Italy and Greece — these two realms 
 of the antique civilization — had raised their fronts with 
 the hope of independence ; and was but three months 
 old when I was taken to Bari, my father, who had now 
 attained the rank of Marshal, having been appointed to 
 the. command of that province. 
 
 I remember as distinctly as if it had occurred but 
 yesterday a circumstance which befel me in that city 
 when I had but just completed my third year. My 
 family, having been invited to a masked ball, took me 
 also thither, dressed as a little peasant-girl. Sleep 
 soon took possession of me, and my mother, enveloping 
 me in a shawl, delivered me to the footman to be taken 
 back to our residence and to be consigned to my maid. 
 The ball continued long and vdth great gaiety. At its 
 termination my mother asked for the servant, to inquire 
 whether I had wakened or had cried by the way — he 
 was not to be found, nor had any one seen him return. 
 My parents, in considerable agitation, sent forthwith 
 to our house to learn what had become of me and the 
 domestic, but the answer brought back was that no 
 child had been delivered to the maid. This only 
 
EARLY YEAES. 3 
 
 served to increase their consternation. My father flew 
 back himself' to the house, and, breathless, heaped 
 question upon question, the woman still persisting in 
 asserting that she had seen no one return. This intel- 
 ligence put the crowning point to the general agitation, 
 and all the members of the family present, together 
 with such relations and friends as were also there, 
 immediately set out in pursuit of me. Then com- 
 menced a search of indescribable confusion and bewil- 
 derment, an endless passing and repassing over the 
 same ground — all in vain. Finally it was suggested 
 to change the beat : and having then wandered about 
 for some hours, the pursuers came upon a low drinking- 
 house, the door of which stood ajar, the uproar within 
 betokening a debauch. Pushing the door open, the 
 party found me extended upon a couple of chairs, im- 
 mersed in the most profound and calm sleep, whilst the 
 servant, in a state of intoxication, was engaged in a 
 brawl with the companions of his debauch. The pre- 
 cipitation with which my mother seized her anxiously- 
 sought property awoke me. The strange scene in 
 which I found myself, the voice of my father, who had 
 seized the untrustworthy messenger by the throat and 
 had burled him to the ground, have deeply graven that 
 wakening on my memory. And this is the first, the 
 earliest remembrance of my life. 
 
 After a residence of four years in Bari, a telegraphic 
 despatch summoned my father suddenly back to Naples^ 
 
 B 2 
 
4 HENRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 The Bourbons ever marked their acts by that sudden 
 and mysterious terrorism which has made the name of the 
 Council of Ten so formidable in history. My mother 
 with ourselves followed immediately afterwards, by his 
 direction, and in the escort of one of his friends. 
 
 We travelled by post, to reach the capital with more 
 expedition. It was on the third day of our journey 
 vfhen my mother became aware of a deathly paleness 
 which overspread the face of the officer appointed by 
 my father as our companion. Anxiously she inquired 
 what ailed him ; he replied that he felt very ill. A few 
 instants more, and, leaning from the window, he vomited 
 a torrent of blood. 
 
 In such deplorable circumstances, and with the 
 prospect of seeing the sufferer from one moment 
 to the other become a bloodless corpse, we were 
 constrained to continue our journey to some village, 
 that we might procure him the aid his state re- 
 quired. All efforts and remedies proved vain — the 
 unfortunate man did not live to see the close of that 
 day. 
 
 Arrived in Naples we found my father in sore dejec- 
 tion. 
 
 Without assigning any reason this capricious and 
 unjust government had placed him on the reduced list ; 
 and it was not until much later, and after considerable 
 pains, that he learnt that he had been privately accused 
 of disaffection. He sought an audience of the king 
 
EARLY YEARS, 5 
 
 Repeatedly; but Francisco I., who was then on the 
 throne, and not less odious and remorseless than his 
 father, was inexorable. 
 
 We were reduced almost to indigence, for his pay 
 (that of a fourth class) hardly sufficed for the most 
 Urgent wants of so large a family. 
 
 We passed three long years in this penury — three 
 years of pinching want. Finally, having been restored 
 to active service, my father received the appointment to 
 the governorship of the province of Reggio, to which 
 we immediately proceeded. It was the 15th October 
 of the year 1827. 
 
 We had taken our passage for the port of Messina 
 on board of an English brig, and were much dismayed 
 at receiving the summons of its commander to embark 
 at the moment that a furious gale, accompanied by 
 showers of' hail and by lightning, threatened annihilation 
 to every vessel in the bay. The remonstrances of my 
 parents availed nothing with the determined captain, 
 and we passed a night of extreme peril, of terror, and 
 suffering. This persistance of the Englishman in 
 putting to sea in such a tempest seemed inexplicable 
 to my father ; and, having expressed to him his astonish- 
 ment at this hazardous act, the imperturbable seaman 
 laid before him a paper, on which was traced a routine 
 of trips which he should yet make before reaching 
 London on New Year's-day, " For there, and on that 
 particular day," added he, " I have engaged to many a 
 
6 HENRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 young lady to whom I am tenderly attached ; and all 
 the elements let loose together on me shall not deter 
 me." Laughter and indignation struggled for the 
 mastery with my parents ; they laughed to hear an 
 impassive Englishman express himself with such warmth 
 on the subject of his passion, and they were enraged 
 that this man should have exposed our lives to a cer- 
 tain danger for a caprice of his own. Another brig, 
 emboldened by our example, had followed us ; but, less 
 fortunate than ourselves, had been obliged to throw 
 its cargo overboard, and arrived, bearing the corpse of 
 a woman who had died from extreme suffering' and 
 terror. 
 
 Our reception in Calabria was most flattering. Four 
 carriages conveyed our family to the sumptuous palace 
 destined for my father. The charming aspect of the 
 place, the gay company, and Calabrian hospitality made 
 us in a few days forget the suflerings of the three past 
 years, even to the sinister howling of the tempest ; so 
 easily are the early woes of childhood eflaced. I did 
 not foresee then the storm and the woes which awaited 
 me. 
 
FIRST LOVES. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 FIRST LOVES. 
 
 Eight years of uninterrupted uniformity now suc- 
 ceeded ; the amusements of childhood, the requirements 
 of our education, occupied the day, whilst the reunion 
 of a cultivated Calabrian society, together with the 
 military, brought it to a pleasing conclusion. 
 
 In the course of these eight years my three elder 
 sisters were married, and there then remained myself 
 and another, who was my senior by one year, my ill- 
 fated sister Josephine, who died early. 
 
 My health up to this period had always been most 
 delicate. Of highly nervous temperament, pallid and 
 of slender form, gifted, too, with an inordinate and yet 
 fatal sensibility, I gave no promise of reaching the pro- 
 portions of a strongly-constituted organisation. When, 
 however, I entered my fourteenth year, my figure ex- 
 panded ; to the sallowness of my cheeks succeeded a 
 healthy colour, which seemed all the more deepened 
 
8 HENRIETTA CAEACCIOLO. 
 
 from the natural dark tone of my complexion. Un- 
 fortunately (if we may apply such a term to love), with 
 the development of the hody came the precocious ad- 
 vancement of the heart. The undisturbed serenity of 
 childhood vanished at once. Sleep no longer brought 
 its restoring balm. I felt a void within — a void emi- 
 nently painful, which I desired to fill with the possession 
 of an object as yet vague, indistinct, undetermined by 
 myself. A look, a word sufficed to disturb the uniform 
 beating of the heart — to make me think I had inspired 
 a sentiment akin to that which I felt myself Then 
 Would come the disenchantment — ^that look had been 
 directed at random, that word had been uttered in mere 
 politeness, without any participation of the heart in its 
 meaning. 
 
 Severe beyond measure was our bringing up on the 
 side of my mother. We were frequently and in the 
 most capricious manner forbidden by her many acts of 
 the most innocent character. She meted out rigorously 
 the hour we were allowed to remain on the balcony 
 during the promenade, and any transgression of this 
 order was visited with the utmost severity. 
 
 But who does not know how rebellious against disci- 
 pline are the aspirations of the heart at fourteen ? — 
 
 " . . . . Ben sa il yer ohi rimpara 
 Com' ho fett' io con mio grave dolore ! " 
 
 The last of my joyous, my careless days, expired on 
 
FIRST LOVES. 9 
 
 that very balcony. Amid the crowd of loungers which 
 filed past beneath our windows I had observed a young 
 man of unusually attractive appearance. He passed 
 and repassed several times during my stay there, and I 
 could not help fancying that I myself was the " lode- 
 star to his gaze." 
 
 I summoned my maid, who as a native of Reggio was 
 likely to be informed, and, pointing him out to her as 
 he was leaving the promenade, asked her if she knew 
 
 who he was. She replied that it was Signor Carlo , 
 
 the eldest son of a numerous family, not rich, but in 
 easy circumstances. 
 
 From that moment I thought but of the hour when 
 I could again take my place on the balcony. I longed 
 to see once more the object which had filled my 
 thoughts since the previous day. 
 
 The hours of the night seemed endless — the day 
 which followed, oh, how long ! The moment came at 
 last, and indescribable was my pleasure as I beheld 
 him again. Our eyes met, and I became crimson. He 
 observed my confusion, and a slight smile passed across 
 his lips. Raising his hand slowly to his hat, he saluted 
 me. What rashness was mine ! I answered it all con- 
 fusion, " tutta tremante." I stepped at once from the 
 impersonality of childhood to the consciousness of an 
 expansive individuality. 
 
 From that hour peace left me — to work was weari- 
 ness — my lessons became intolerable. I lived only for 
 
10 HENRIETTA CAEACCIOLO. 
 
 the scanty hour it was permitted me to sit on the 
 balcony. Every day he passed by our house. To see 
 him — to return his salute — was more than existence to 
 me. Many months passed thus, during which the 
 demonstration of om: love did not pass the bounds of 
 looks. He manifested a desire to see me often, and 
 everything about him seemed marked by sincerity; 
 only — I heard of no communication to my parents — on 
 the contrary, it seemed as if he were anxious to conceal 
 our attachment. Opposite to ours was a palace whose 
 first story had been unoccupied for a long time. One 
 morning I saw from the window a quantity of furniture 
 which was being carried into it by porters. Curiosity 
 to know who were to be our new neighbours made me 
 return later to the same place. I then saw Carlo on 
 the balcony. Why does he leave his own family ? was 
 my first thought : perhaps to be near me — to see me 
 oftener. He withdrew within, and by a gesture asked 
 if I loved him. I nodded an aflBrmative. 
 
 On that evening a number of our friends had 
 assembled in the drawing-room, and in the conversa- 
 tion of some young men close to me I heard his naine 
 pronounced. I listened — I was, however, only able to 
 seize the words " that he had ceased to reside with his 
 family to be quite alone with his bride." 
 
 This last word appalled me ! but, though I strained 
 my attention to the utmost, I could not catch another 
 word of their conversation. 
 
FIKST LOVES. 11 
 
 My love only increased under this frequency of 
 seeing him; for, eluding the vigilance of 'my mother, 
 I would run to the window on every opportunity ; ever 
 in the belief that the bride of whom they spoke was no 
 other than myself. Full of the delicious deception that 
 Heaven had created him for none other than myself, how 
 many and what projects of future happiness did I con- 
 jure up ! Is there in the heart of the enamoured girl 
 a day more ardently sighed for than that of her bridal- 
 morn ? That which the term " future " sounds in the ear 
 of religion and philosophy is to the impassioned girl 
 contained in the mystical word " marriage." 
 
 My maid, observing me on one of these occasions, 
 ran into the room to me crying — 
 
 " Oh, Signorinaj what are you doing? Come away 
 from the window ! that gentleman is going to be mar- 
 ried in a few days ! " 
 
 "You are quite mistaken," I answered, conscious 
 that I became deadly pale. " It is impossible ! " and 
 turning towards him, I asked him, by a sign, if he 
 loved me. 
 
 The reply was an affirmative. 
 
 " You see," I exclaimed, turning to the maid, " you 
 see you are mistaken." 
 
 " No, no ! I am not mistaken. You are a child — 
 you do not know what men are capable of As surely 
 as this day is Sunday, Signer Carlo is to marry another 
 lady within a month. My mother asked Signor Carlo 
 
12 HENRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 himself if the lady was to be the Signo'rina Caracciolo, 
 and he answered, No ! that the Caracciolo was well 
 enough, but that she had very little money ! " 
 
 Without replying I shut the window and withdrew. 
 I felt as if my heart would burst. Tears came at last, 
 and I wept the hvelong night, as those weep who learn 
 to know the world 'at the expense of disenchantment. 
 Is there a woman who has not loved ? Such a one, 
 were all the wisdom of Plato and Aristotle infused into 
 her mind, would yet know the world but by half- 
 It was soon announced to me that he passed the 
 whole of his time at the house of his future bride, and 
 that it wanted but a week to the marriage-day. This 
 filled up the measure of my despair — the commotion 
 brought on a fever, which lasted a fqrtnight. 
 
 My miud became somewhat calmed. With my own 
 hand did I place the funeral stone on the grave of my 
 passion, and grave the word " forget" upon it. Let those 
 maidens whose sound education has never made them 
 see in the lover aught but the future husband, imitate 
 my example in this. 
 
 Carlo's image never found place again within my 
 thoughts, except under the semblance of some dramatic 
 personage, the fictitious vicissitudes of whose existence 
 had moved me in some theatre at no distant period 
 before. 
 
 One evening, towards the close of this illness, at an 
 advanced hour, the sound of several carriages stopping 
 
FIRST LOVES. 13 
 
 near our door struck me — " What is this noise in the 
 street, Antonia ? " I asked. " Is the bride coming ? " 
 
 " Even so, Signorina ; she has just arrived, accom- 
 panied by her relations." 
 
 I started as with an electric shock. 
 
 " When did the marriage take place ? " 
 
 " This very evening." 
 
 I laid my head on the pillow again, and was 
 silent 
 
 Several months had now passed over since the above 
 occurrence had taken place ; my mind during that 
 period had recovered a perfect calm after the commo- 
 tion it had received from the treachery of Carlo. I 
 could now behold, with the utmost indifference, the 
 same man beside his bride. 
 
 My mother had by this time given birth to two more 
 daughters; their care served as an occupation and 
 a distraction to me. 
 
 The Calabrian youth, by temperament lovers of 
 gaiety, were full of the occupation which their masks 
 and costumes gave them during the carnival of this 
 winter of 1839. Our house was ever," during this 
 season, thrown open nightly with music and dancing, 
 and a crowded assemblage never failed to pass these 
 festive hours there. 
 
 On one of these evenings my father received the 
 visit of a gentleman who had been lately appointed to 
 a civil situation in the province. He came accom- 
 
14 HENRIETTA CAKACCIOLO. 
 
 panied by his son, a young man apparently of some 
 twenty years. 
 
 This youth, whose name was Domenico, never once 
 withdrew his gaze from me during the whole period. of 
 the visit. Not, strictly speaking, handsome ; his eyes, 
 of admirable conformation, possessed that singular 
 power of fascination which has the effect of magnetism. 
 Was he conscious of this power? he who thus with 
 such tenacity " held me with his glittering, eye." All 
 I know is, that under this fascination I experienced 
 a trouble, a state of being ill at ease, a singular and 
 still increasing disturbance of the whole system. I 
 tried change of position, conversation, abstraction of 
 every kind, but in vain ; those inexorable eyes pursued 
 me everywhere, drew me without resistance to them- 
 selves, and seemed to deprive me of all volition. 
 
 On the day following I again saw him — in the .even- 
 ing likewise. I could hardly move a step afterwards 
 that I did not encounter him and observe his anxiety 
 to follow me and evince his admiration for me. 
 
 " Dost thou then think that all men are of 
 
 the same composition as Carlo?" whispered a voice 
 within me, in caressing tones. " No ; they are not all 
 of the same feather. If the maxim be true that lealty 
 in love is rare, and few are those who find it, still the 
 existence of the virtue is proved by thy own sincerity ; 
 and it will be enough to make a second trial to prove it. 
 A gaze which possesses the power to disturb thee to 
 
FIUST LOVES. IS 
 
 thy very innermost, may it not be the messenger of love 
 and pity? " 
 
 Heated by my imagination, my heart warmed anew, 
 whilst reason, subjugated by my feelings and stripped 
 of every resource, was silent, leaving the soul naked to 
 the fascination. 
 
16 HENRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 CHAPTEE in. 
 
 JEALOUSY. 
 
 In allusion to the traditional system of demoralization by 
 which the late fallen petty despots of our peninsula were 
 wont to corrupt the lives and manners of their subjects, 
 it was a saying of one of the acutest and shrewdest of 
 German critics, not long since summoned from the field 
 of letters, that the " Maestro " Gioacchino Rossini 
 was the only statesman in Italy. 
 
 Heine thus defined the instincts of the Latin race 
 with a depth of insight which he failed to employ in the 
 examination of the German character. He resided in 
 Naples, and closely studied the overwhelming preva- 
 lence of " melomania " in the Neapolitans. 
 
 It was also a saying that any crowned head a dis- 
 ciple of Macchiavelli could have governed " comme 
 il faut " the people of Southern Italy with three F's — 
 Festa, Farina, Forca — with Balls, Bread, and the 
 Gallows : the Gist for his nobility, the second for the 
 
JEALOUSY. 17 
 
 lazzaroni, the third for bearded liberals. Bread was 
 a scarcity now and then, but the fete and the gibbet 
 have amused the Neapolitans without any dearth. 
 
 The " Festa," the primary and constituent element 
 of Bourbon rule, may be divided into three species — 
 the sacred Festa, the court Festa, and the profane 
 Festa. It was again subdivided into five principal 
 secretaries of state, viz. ecclesiastical solemnities (in- 
 separable from saints, prodigies, and the pyrotechnic 
 art), balls, theatres, concerts, and the carnival. There 
 were gala days, in which, if the prince in his palace 
 danced, every faithful subject who was not a reverend 
 or gouty was called on to put his legs in motion. And 
 during the last days of the carnival, when His Majesty 
 having donned his mask and costume, mounted his gilt 
 car, and thrown' right and left of the Toledo the abund- 
 ance of his royal munificence in the form of sugared 
 shot, what an honour it was for every loyal and devoted 
 subject to receive full in the face at least one charge of 
 that grape in commemoration of the bombardment 
 which saved Naples, the throne, and the Church, from 
 the infernal pestilence of liberalism ! 
 
 Provincial "bon ton" consisted in a servile imita- 
 tion of the corruption of the metropolis. 
 
 As I have said, the Calabrian youth (infected too 
 with the fatuity which varnished over the iron rule of 
 that period) were wholly occupied in the consideration 
 of their carnival costumes, and our house never failed 
 
 
 
18 HKNRIETTA CAEACCIOLO. 
 
 to attract a gay and crowded assemblage from which 
 Domenico never absented himself. My mother had 
 perceived his attentions, and she now reproved me 
 sharply for corresponding to this affection. 
 
 After the lapse of a few days the grandfather of 
 Domenico presented himself at our house, and formally 
 made a demand of my parents of my hand in marriage 
 for his grandson. 
 
 They naturally asked why his father had not come 
 to make this proposal. The grandfather candidly 
 replied that, Domenico's father not approving of the 
 union (as he had another wife in view for him), he 
 himself, urged by the entreaties and even tears of his 
 grandson, whom he loved affectionately, and whom it 
 was his intention to constitute his heir, had undertaken 
 the charge, telling his father that he wished Domenico 
 to have the wife of his choice, and ultimately hoping to 
 acquire even his consent to it. 
 
 This equivocal proceeding only added to the violent 
 antipathy which my mother had always conceived for 
 Domenico. My parents could not agree to such a 
 marriage, wanting the sanction of the father — nay, 
 would even feel bound, should the young man seek to 
 gain an interview, to prohibit him entering the house 
 in future. 
 
 Neither my father nor mother ever communicated to 
 me this offer of marriage which they had received. I 
 learned it later from a friend of Domenico. This 
 
JEALOUSY. 19^ 
 
 latter then essayed all the means which his ardent love 
 for me suggested to influence his father's decision, but 
 having exhausted all, the most affectionate and con- 
 vincing, he found him still inexorable to his entreaties 
 and even tears. Some days passed over during these 
 events, and when I saw him again he bore visible traces 
 of having suffered intensely. 
 
 He had come to our " reunions " as usual, but had 
 avoided directing his attentions exclusively to me. On 
 one occasion, however, he had unfortunately seated 
 himself on a chair on which my feet were resting — 
 thinking that my mother could not take umbrage at 
 this act, as she was seated close beside me, and could 
 be privy to any conversation or act between us ; but 
 she, who was only seeking for some excuse to keep him 
 away, found in the action a transgression of her order 
 and a sufficient pretext for forbidding him the house. 
 
 Long and severe was her admonition to me. She 
 accused me of disobedience in persisting to love a per- 
 son with whom neither she nor my father could approve 
 an alliance. She pointed out what she had (equally 
 with myself) observed in him, a strongly jealous dis- 
 position, and the continual pain which this caused me. 
 
 This trait in the character of Domenico was a per- 
 petual martyrdom to me. It was enough that any 
 young man should sit beside me but for a moment, or 
 utter an indifferent word to me, — ^I could see the expres- 
 sion of his countenance transformed fearfully ; his eyes 
 
 C 2 
 
20 HENRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 became bloodshot, and the movement of his quivering 
 lips seemed to form and convey a terrible reproach or 
 threat to me. 
 
 Debarred from all means of communication, it was 
 impossible to enter into explanations. It would have 
 been most diflBcult for him to convey a letter to me ; 
 and the vigilance of my mother made it absolutely 
 impossible for me to make an answer to it. 
 
 Thus, having intimated to me through a friend that 
 if I really loved him I would not dance, how was I to 
 satisfy him ? I sat down to the piano instead. My 
 mother approached — "This is some prohibition you 
 have received from your lover," she cried. " Take care ; 
 I do not permit these whims. Get up and dance." 
 I was constrained to obey. 
 
 Domenico was furious, and I found myself in a posi- 
 tion of painful embarrassment, to which I could see no 
 issue. 
 
 My father, a man of unparalleled kindness of heart, 
 had intrusted the bringing up of his daughters entirely 
 to his wife, and never interfered in her decisions, sup- 
 posing them always to be just. 
 
 During this state of things a circmnstance relating 
 to this embarrassing position of mine occurred which I 
 do not wish to pass over in silence. 
 
 Messina, situated as is known at twelve miles' distance 
 from Reggio, and separated from it by that strait which 
 in the hour of storm makes the boldest seaman quail. 
 
JEALOUSY. 21 
 
 Keeps with great pomp the 15th August (the Feast of 
 the Assumption), together with the two preceding 
 ones. This festival, a mixture of the sacred and the 
 profane, of the ridiculous and the harbarous, is the 
 great attraction of all the neighbouring populations, as 
 well as those of the Calabrias. 
 
 Amongst many other objects of a grotesque or ridi- 
 culous character, which form the prominent feature 
 at this religious concourse, are two gigantic figures, 
 male and female, composed of pasteboard, and mounted 
 on horses equally enormous, and of the same material. 
 These hideous monsters, dressed for the occasion in 
 some showy and coarse fabric, but always representing 
 the prevailing fashion of the day, occupy the comments 
 and ecstatic admiration of the crowd on the Piazza del 
 Arcivescovado. Two men of the populace, covered with 
 the skin of a camel, called by the people " blessed " (I 
 know not why), make a round to vendors of every de- 
 scription of goods, who, as an act of devotion, put each 
 into the mouth of this object some article of that in 
 which they deal. This donation is stowed away on the 
 instant in sacks, with which those within are furnished, 
 and which they take care not to leave behind them ; the 
 collection being supposed to be devoted to the expenses 
 of the Festa. The most striking object, however, of 
 these solemnities consists in the following proces- 
 sion : — 
 
 A colossal car is dragged by a long team of buffaloes 
 
52 HENRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 through the irregular and ill-paved streets. Upon this 
 are erected a great variety of objects, such as the sun, 
 moon, and principal planets, set in rotatory motion, and 
 diminishing proportionably in size as they approach the 
 summit of the structure. 
 
 This erection is in itself really imposing ; sumptu- 
 ously decorated, and put in movement in honour of her 
 who gave birth to the God of Charity. But its functions 
 recall to mind the famed car "of Juggemauth, or the 
 nefarious hecatombs of the Druids. The heart sickens 
 at sight of it, and it is difficult to refrain from crying 
 shame upon the horrible barbarity; for, bound to 
 the rays of sun and moon, to the circles forming the 
 spheres of the various planets, are infants yet unweaned, 
 whose mothers, for the gain of a few ducats, thus expose 
 their offspring, to represent the cherub escort which is 
 supposed to accompany the Virgin to heaven. 
 
 When this huge machine has made its jolting round, 
 these helpless creatures, guiltless of every reproach but 
 that of being the offspring of brutal mothers, having 
 been whirled round and round for a period of seven 
 hours, are taken down from this fatal machine, 
 already dead or dying. Then ensues a scene impassible 
 to describe — the mothers struggling with each other, 
 screaming, and trampling each other down. It not 
 being possible, on account of the number, for each 
 mother to recognise her own child among the survivors, 
 onj3 disputes with the other the identity of her infant, 
 
JEALOUSY. 2S 
 
 amid a stonn of imprecations and the lamentations of 
 the more afflicted, joined to the deafening derision of the 
 spectators, and the hooting of the mob. Numbers are 
 thus changed in the confusion. The less fortunate 
 mothers, as they receive the dead bodies of their infants, 
 often already cold, rend the air with their fictitious 
 lamentations, but consoled with the certainty that 
 Maria, enamoured of her child, has taken it with her. 
 into Paradise. 
 
 Comforted with such a conviction, they enjoy them- 
 selves in making merry with the women of the neigh- 
 bourhood until the whole of the money so obtained, the 
 " price of blood," is dissipated, never doubting that the 
 priesthood will furnish additional aid in memory of their 
 little ones thus gloriously received into Elysium. 
 
 •This Festa, then, a manifestation of one of the above- 
 cited Bourbonic F's, was close at hand. 
 
 A large circle of our friends, together with my father 
 and mother, agreed to pay Messina a visit. The com- 
 pany consisted of forty persons, and it was arranged 
 that we should all lodge in one house. I was in great 
 agitation, picturing to myself what disastrous news the 
 intelligence of this amusement would be for Domenico 
 — an amusement which must have placed me in close 
 proximity with young men for whom Domenico felt a 
 raging but most unfounded jealousy ; one of whom, 
 ignorant of our attachment, had even imparted to 
 Domenico himself the admiration which I had the ill- 
 
24 HENRIETTA CABACCIOLO. 
 
 luck to inspire him with. Hardly had he learned this, 
 than he gave himself up to the most terrible fits of 
 passion, and informed me, through the usual medium, 
 that if I went he would put an end to himself. 
 
 It was in vain that his friend observed to him that 
 he exacted from me that which was beyond my power. 
 It was not likely that my parents would leave me 
 alone ; nor, on the other hand, could I stand in oppo- 
 sition to their command. He used the most efficacious 
 arguments to persuade him, promising him that he 
 himself would never leave my side, and that on his 
 return he would render him an account of my comport- 
 ment in regard to his imaginary rivals. 
 
 Somewhat reassured by these promises, he preceded 
 us in our voyage by a few hours, so that on our dis- 
 embarkation in the port of Messina I observed him, at 
 a distance, on the pier, awaiting us. He followed us, 
 at the same distance, and having learned where we 
 were to stay, took up a position whence, without being 
 observed by my mother, he could command a view of 
 the balcony of the house we occupied. 
 
 His friend faithfully kept his promise, attaching him- 
 self to me like my shadow, and making an unsur- 
 mountable bulwark of his body to all who might have 
 wished to approach me. 
 
 The last day of the Festa seemed to me a thousand 
 years in coming, so haunted was I with the idea of 
 some misfortune-ras this was destined to prove. 
 
JEALOUSY. 25 
 
 At nine o'clock of that evening, Paolo, his friend, 
 expressed his anxious desire to go out for a few minutes 
 to purchase some object which he much required. He 
 had hardly descended the stairs when my mother 
 ordered Josephine and myself to prepare to go out. It 
 was proposed that we should sally forth to occupy the po- 
 sition chosen for us to see the illumination and fireworks. 
 
 " We are not all here," I observed timidly ; " some 
 of the party are wanting." 
 
 " Whoever is wanting can join us," replied my 
 mother, in a tone which admitted of no reply. 
 
 I was silent ; and making my preparations for going 
 out as slowly as I could, watched in breathless anxiety 
 for the return of Paolo ; but he came not. I followed 
 the party. 
 
 A voice close beside me made me start. 
 
 I looked up. It was that of the young man who 
 had confided to Domenico his love for me, offering me 
 his arm. 
 
 I hesitated for an instant ; but at that moment 
 caught my mother's eye fixed upon me. Fear gained 
 the mastery over me, and I accepted his arm with a 
 heart of anguish. 
 
 At the turn of the street I observed, notwithstanding 
 the great crowd, Domenico approaching. We were 
 close to each other before he had seen me, but my 
 sister's voice caused him to look towards us. 
 
 The livid hue of the dead could not have surpassed 
 
26 HENRIETTA CAEACCIOLO. 
 
 the cadaverous colour of his face. He quivered with 
 rage ; and, uttering some unintelligible exclamation, 
 made a bound towards me, as if for the purpose of 
 felling me to the ground ; but as rapidly repenting this 
 exhibition of his mad rage, or, what was as likely, 
 finding himself without any weapon .wherewith to 
 wreak his fury on me, he darted suddenly away. I 
 uttered a suppressed scream ; but by good fortune the 
 deafening noise in the streets overpowered it. 
 
 Domenico had left Messina within the hour in which 
 he had thus seen me with his fancied rival, and had 
 sought an interview with his father, to tell him that he 
 was ready to obey him in setting out for Naples (an 
 injunction which he had hitherto evaded), and had 
 pledged his word to this effect. 
 
 I loved Domenico with warm affection, and was ever 
 most careful to avoid giving him the slightest motive 
 for jealousy ; yet in his mind I passed for a heartless 
 and inconstant lover. 
 
 His friend reproached him severely, depicting my 
 state to him, and censuring his conduct as that of a 
 madman. He was deeply affected, and ended with 
 repenting the step he had taken in a moment of blind 
 passion, but which was now irrevocable. 
 
 The words of Paolo produced a commotion within 
 me which T could with difficulty subdue. I held coun- 
 sel with myself for a moment, and then, resuming my 
 lost energy, replied to this devoted friend — 
 
JEALODSY. 27 
 
 " I will ask a last favour of you. 'See Domenico once 
 more, and announce to him from me that I am the 
 offended party ; he is at liberty to go or remain as he 
 pleases. It will be little concern of mine, who am con- 
 scious of being guiltless of. that he accuses me of. May 
 he find a woman in Naples more faithful than I ! " 
 
 It was Sunday — and the day fixed for his departure 
 was the following Tuesday. 
 
 On that night we had severally retired to our apart- 
 ments, and I had been an hour in bed without having 
 been able to close my eyes, when a low deep murmur 
 struck my ear. This unusual sound struck me with 
 terror. I raised my head and ti-ied to sit up, but a 
 violent shock threw me back upon the pillow. Then suc- 
 ceeded a prolonged vibration of the doors and windows. 
 At this all were roused. My sister jumped out of bed. 
 I did the same, and I tottered hither and thither. We 
 ran to our parents' rooms, who told us to dress our- 
 selves as well as we could, and fly to the square which 
 was contiguous to our house. We had hardly time to 
 put on a dressing-gown, when a second shock threw us 
 both to the ground. Rushing out, we found my father 
 waiting for us near the staircase. My mother held one 
 of the children in her arms. She desired me to take up 
 the other, and to follow her. On reaching the street 
 I transferred the infant to one of the servants, whilst I 
 endeavoured to arrange my very imperfect dress. 
 
 My hair, in the hurry and confusion, had become 
 
28 HENRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 undone and lay loose on my back and shoulders. I 
 felt it gently touched, and, turning round, beheld 
 Domenico. 
 
 " I, at least," he whispered to me, " must cry bless- 
 ings on the earthquake which gives me the chance of 
 seeing you once more — were it even but to say fare- 
 well. I will return in a month." 
 
 The firm tone of this promise contrasted with the 
 oscillating ground, which quivered beneath our feet 
 under the impulse of this terrible phenomenon. The 
 inhabitants flew in all directions from their houses. 
 The noise of chimneys precipitated to the ground, the 
 yelling and the prayers of the multitude, the howling 
 of dogs and the crowing of cocks, deafened the air. 
 The confusion reached even to the birds, which, 
 terrified by the catastrophe and abandoning their 
 hiding-places, flew hither and thither above our heads, 
 uttering shrill and plaintive cries. In fine, it was a 
 scene of universal terror, confusion, and ruin, not 
 easily eflaced from the memory. 
 
 My father ordered two of our carriages to be brought 
 out without the horses, that we might sit in them. I 
 got into one of them together with him, taking also 
 the infant with me. My mother, with my sister and 
 the second child, occupied the other. 
 
 Domenico approached my father and saluted him. 
 He received him most courteously, and they remained 
 n conversation on various topics for nearly an hour, 
 
JEALOUSY. 29 
 
 during which the shocks succeeded each other inces- 
 santly. When Domenico saw the day beginning to 
 break he took his leave, wishing to start before sunrise. 
 
 As he passed near the carriage which my mother 
 occupied he saluted her likewise. She called him. 
 
 " Is it true, Signer Domenico, that you leave Reggio 
 this morning ? " 
 
 " In half-an-hour I embark." 
 
 My mother detaining him with another question, he 
 summoned courage to address her in these words : — 
 " I leave in obedience to my father. In a month I 
 return ; "and then, with or without his consent, I will 
 renew through my grandfather my demand in marriage 
 of your daughter's hand. I implore you not to refuse 
 me, having now seen that nothing has availed to 
 diminish the warm attachment we bear to each other." 
 
 " Well, we will speak of it on your return," was the 
 hopeful reply. She gave him her hand, which he 
 kissed, as he had done that of my father. 
 
30 HENRIETTA CABACCIOLO. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 MOUKNING. 
 
 I AM fain to believe that each of us reckons some 
 ill-omened date in his life, some one critical event 
 of sinister remembrance, which marks the starting- 
 point of an uninterrupted succession of subsequent 
 disasters. The ill-starred hour of my life was marked 
 on the horoscope in the midst of this terrible and 
 inauspicious night, in which the chaos of the elements 
 threatened to destroy Reggio and the other cities of 
 Calabria. 
 
 Other sorrows beyond those inevitable ones which 
 our first love brings with it I had as yet not felt, 
 and every woman knows the sweet and abundant 
 recompense with which these are tempered. From 
 this hour every joy was silent for me; my horizon 
 darkened around me ; my laugh was no longer joyous. 
 From this point commences my sad story, {nde 
 lachrymce ! 
 
MOUBNING. 31 
 
 Five days and as many nights were passed thus out 
 of the house ; two small rooms were constructed of 
 wood in the little fort by the seashore, and w^e took up 
 our residence in these. 
 
 On the sixth day we returned to our house, not 
 because the danger had entirely ceased, but because 
 my father experienced a state of general indisposition, 
 attributed to his sleeping in great discomfort and 
 deprived of those aids necessary to a man who had 
 now reached his seventieth year. I loved, adored this 
 father with no ordinary devotion; loved him far be- 
 yond my mother, and not without just reason. There 
 are parents who, not content to adopt an unjust pre- 
 ference for one or more of their children, have more- 
 over the imprudence to make undisguised manifesta- 
 tion of this among their family. My mother (with 
 sorrow do I thus charge her memory) was not free 
 from this weakness, and prone, through I know not 
 what instinct, to domestic preferences, she would never 
 adopt the charitable care to conceal these from the 
 eyes of the less loved. She showed great partiality 
 in her affection for her children, and unfortunately I 
 was not amongst the number of these favourites ; and 
 no day passed that ever-renewed and evident proof 
 did not convince me of this. My father, on the other 
 hand, had compensated me for my scanty portion of 
 the maternal fondness by doubling his own for me. 
 On one evening he had entered the drawing-room 
 
32 HENRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 somewhat earlier than usual, and was occupying his 
 accustomed seat. Having terminated my toilet opera- 
 tions for the theatre, I sat down to the piano until the 
 time for our departure for this should arrive. Whilst 
 I was singing I heard him sigh deeply. Attributing 
 this to some uncomfortable thought momentarily sad- 
 dening him, I did not interrupt my music. 
 
 A second sigh from him, followed by an almost 
 inaudible prayer, caught my ear. I rose instantly, 
 and, going up to him, inquired what so distressed 
 him. 
 
 " I am not distressed," he replied ; " I feel . infirm, 
 and am sorry I have not strength to accompany you to 
 the theatre." 
 
 " Can it be possible that the thought of our amuse- 
 ment can occupy you at such a moment?" I cried; 
 and hastily taking the ornaments from my hair, I 
 deposited them on a chair. I called my sister, who 
 did the same, and who then went to summon my 
 mother. 
 
 We led him back to his bedroom, and despatched a 
 messenger for his medical attendant, who was unable 
 at that period to enlighten us on the gravity of his 
 illness. We all remained with him during the night, 
 and on the following morning the most eminent 
 professors were summoned in con Itaion on his 
 case. 
 
 This, though declared serious, was not yet pro- 
 
MOURNING. 33 
 
 nounced desperate. Four days passed, and the 
 malady still held the mastery. On the seventh they 
 announced that their efforts to save him were fruitless, 
 and that it was now our duty to administer to him the 
 last consolations of religion. 
 
 Those alone who have been deprived of a beloved 
 parent in whose affection they had concentrated the 
 sura of their happiness, present and future, can to the 
 full comprehend the violence of my grief The last 
 offices of religion shed from, the death-bed tapers over 
 the future of the orphan a reflection so sombre that no 
 sun can ever avail to dissipate it. 
 
 They drew us to a distant room, that we might give 
 free vent to our overwhelming grief whilst the confessor 
 prepared and administered the sacraments, which he 
 received with angelic resignation. 
 
 This mournful ceremony completed, we pleaded for 
 readmittance. My face had undergone such trans- 
 formation from grief, that those surrounding his bed 
 made a sign to me not to approach it. I sank on 
 a chair near the door, suppressing with difficulty every 
 evidence of my presence. 
 
 In a few minutes he made an effort to raise himself, 
 and pronounced my name. Almost suffocated by toy 
 sobs and tears, I answered with difficulty — 
 
 " I am standing by you, dear father." 
 
 " Do you know that I have received the sacra- 
 ment ? " 
 
34 HENRIETTA CAEACCIOLO. 
 
 " I know it." 
 
 " I die in peace ; but your fete, my child, weighs 
 heavily upon me. What will become of you ? " 
 
 Prophetic words, which, in the later vicissitudes of 
 my life, never ceased to echo in my ears, and follow me 
 at every step. 
 
 He called my mother, and in ill-assured accents 
 addressed her : " Take these poor children away ; their 
 sight distracts me. They lose their father before they 
 have gained a husband who could protect and cherish 
 them. In these last moments it is my duty to think 
 of God, and to intrust to His protection what remains." 
 
 My mother made signs to us to approach. We 
 knelt, and, extending his trembling hands, he uttered 
 feebly his benediction and his last words. 
 
 At sunset the confessor entered our room. His 
 presence there and his silence announced that we had 
 no longer a father. 
 
THE CLOISTER. 35 
 
 CHAPTEE V. 
 
 THE CLOISTER. 
 
 3Iakia Theeesa of Austria, the second wife of the 
 king, had given birth to the Prince Luigi, Count 
 of Trani, and orders had been issued for the celebra- 
 tion of this event by three days of festivity. 
 
 The funeral obsequies of my father, which should 
 have been performed with military honours, in con- 
 sideration of his rank as marshal, and also from his 
 having been governor of the province, could not 
 therefore take place during that period. 
 
 The body was therefore embalmed, and we delayed 
 the ceremony until this terra had passed over. 
 
 In losing our father we had lost all. We were 
 therefore necessitated to address ourselves to his 
 Majesty, to remind him of his long services, in order 
 to obtain a pension for my mother. 
 
 At that period there was little steam traffic between 
 Sicily and Calabria, and we were therefore obliged to 
 
 D 2 
 
36 HENEIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 take advantage of the departure of a vessel which 
 passed between Messina and Naples on the second 
 day after the death of nay father. We were thus 
 necessitated to leave his remains, still unconsigned to 
 the grave, in the care of our relatives, and, bidding a 
 sorrowful adieu to our elder sisters, who resided there, 
 my mother, with Josephine and myself, shedding tears 
 of bitter affliction, set sail at daybreak on the morning 
 of the 29th September, and in little more than 
 twenty-four hours we reached Naples. 
 
 This unlooked-for catastrophe unexpectedly brought 
 me near Domenico once more. I was, however, sure 
 that on account of our precipitate departure there had 
 been no time to receive the tidings of the overwhelm- 
 ing misfortune which had befallen us. 
 
 On the day following our arrival Josephine and I 
 were sitting at the window. She was the first to 
 recognise Domenico, who was passing. "We opened 
 the window, and went out on the balcony to attract his 
 attention. 
 
 He stopped in utter bewilderment, and looked 
 fixedly at us ; the mourning we were dressed in 
 seemed to confound him. But my mother approach- 
 ing at the same moment, he understood then that we 
 were fatherless. 
 
 He entered a shop, and, tearing a leaf from his 
 pncket-book, addressed a request to my mother for 
 admittance, that he might learn the calamity which 
 
THE CLOISTER. 37 
 
 had befallen us. This was granted, and in the next 
 moment he was in our presence. He remained in ■ 
 conversation a long time, and on taking leave said 
 that our bereavement, far from altering his sentiments 
 towards me, should be a cause rather to hasten our 
 union ; that as soon as we had arranged our affairs, 
 and returned to Reggio, he would follow us thither, 
 and take advantage of his right to protest, in case his 
 father still refused a consent to our union. 
 
 Many days elapsed, before we could obtain an 
 audience of the king; finally, however, my mother 
 obtained the pension sought. 
 
 My sister Josephine received at this time an offer of 
 marriage. This circumstance then retarded our return 
 to Reggio. It was now the middle of November, and 
 it had been arranged that this marriage should take 
 place in the following January. 
 
 One evening Domenico came to us pale and down- 
 cast ; he showed us a letter from his father which he 
 had just received, ordering him to return forthwith, 
 and the better to enforce his obedience to this com- 
 mand he had refused to send him more money. He 
 was thus without the means of prolonging his stay in 
 Naples. 
 
 Alas ! fate thus separated us again. When was I 
 destined to see him again ? He left us after the most 
 solemn protestations of constancy, and a promise to 
 write to my mother every week. 
 
38 HENRIETTA CAKACCIOLO. 
 
 Many days then passed in receiving and returning 
 the visits of my father's friends and relations, who had 
 not heen made earlier acquainted with our arrival. 
 The most assiduous of these was General Saluzzi, whose 
 sister was the widow of my father's eldest brother — the 
 Prince of Forino. Three aunts — nuns of the Bene- 
 dictine Order, one of the monastery of Sta. Patrizia, 
 and two from that of San Gregorio Armeno — were 
 also most kind and interested in us. They had all 
 a most marked resemblance to my dear father, but 
 were his elders, being all thi-ee at this period past 
 eighty years of age. 
 
 One of these aunts, she after whom I had been 
 christened, was Abbess of San Gregorio Armeno. 
 
 Domenico wrote frequently to my mother. In these 
 letters he announced that he had taken steps to forward 
 this longed-for marriage, that his father showed himself 
 still opposed to it, but that he would end by yielding to 
 his entreaties and the ardent wish of his grandfather. 
 
 Through all this, however, could be plainly dis- 
 cerned that his mind was still a prey to the demon 
 jealousy, revived by my prolonged absence. Another 
 letter arrived from him in a few days, followed by a few 
 lilies addressed to me, and containing these words : — 
 
 "Dear Henrietta — The air of Naples is un- 
 favourable to constancy. The fascinations of that city 
 make me uneasy on your account. Return soon if you 
 
THE CLOISTER. 39 
 
 care for my love. If on the receipt of this you do not 
 quickly return, I shall hold myself absolved from the 
 promise I have made you. — Domenico." 
 
 My mother on reading these lines was furious ; all 
 the antipathy which she had formerly felt for the young 
 man revived afresh, and without permitting me to 
 return an answer, or making allowance for the sus- 
 picious disposition of Domenico, she seized her pen and 
 wrote, — 
 
 " Sir — You would impose commands on my daughter 
 before you have acquired the right to do so. She is not 
 your wife, nor shall she ever be. From this moment I 
 forbid any engagement of marriage between you." 
 
 My tears had no power to calm the fury of my 
 mother. The letter was despatched. 
 
 Still I clung to the hope that on our return to 
 Reggio, should he meet me again, his love for me 
 would be rekindled, even though the cold breath of 
 jealousy had the power to quench some of its ardour. 
 
 But my adverse star had disposed- it otherwise. I 
 fed myself on splendid hopes, whilst the gaping abyss 
 stood open at my feet. 
 
 Christmas was at hand, and the signing of Josephhie's 
 marriage contract was to take place on the 2nd of 
 January. 
 
 One morning my mother announced that an affair of 
 
40 HENRIETTA CAEACCIOLO. 
 
 consequence which she could not communicate to me 
 obliged her to go out alone, but that she would return 
 immediately. In fact she came back after an hour's 
 absence. I observed her attentively, and she appeared 
 to me to be in unusual spirits. I thence conjectured 
 that the business which had seemed so important had 
 had a successful result ; nor can I conceal the fact that 
 I trembled in some disquietude lest it had treated 
 (unknown to me) of some matrimonial project, de- 
 signed to definitively separate me from the object 
 of my thoughts. 
 
 A few days had passed over since this mysterious 
 expedition of hers, when there was a ring at the door. 
 As the servant was absent, I arose and proceeded to 
 open it. A servant-maid, whom I recognised as that of 
 my aunt the Abbess, stood there, bearing upon a tray 
 a present of sweetmeats. At the first sight of this 
 offering I was considerably disturbed, supposing it to 
 be, as is the custom with many, the prelude to some 
 treaty of marriage for me. The girl's mien, however, 
 restored me to confidence ; I breathed again. 
 
 " Are you the Signorina Henrietta ?" she inquired, 
 
 I replied " Yes." 
 
 " The lady Abbess, your aunt, sends her love, and 
 desires me to inform you that the Chapter has agreed 
 unanimously to your admission into the convent." 
 
 " For my admission ! for me ! My good girl, you 
 are in a mistake," I replied, laughing heartily. 
 
THE CLOISTEE. 41 
 
 " No, no ; I am not mistaken, Signora ; you are to 
 come at once to thank the sisters, and to fix the day for 
 your admission." 
 
 My mother, who had observed that I did not return 
 immediately, came to see what had detained me, and 
 at that moment overheard the concluding words of the 
 servant. Pulling me aside, she addressed the girl — 
 
 " Very well, very well, my dear ; thank my sister-in- 
 law, and tell her that this very day I will bring her 
 our little nun." So saying, she took me by the hand, 
 now cold as ice, and led me back into my bedroom. 
 Had a thunderbolt dashed me to the ground I could 
 not have received a more terrific shock. I broke into 
 sobs of despair, burying my face in the cushion of the 
 sofa, which I inundated with tears, and finally threw my- 
 self on my mother's bosom, imploring pity, for her child. 
 
 Imperturbable, but yet not insensible, she passed her 
 hands over my eyelids to wipe away my tears ; then with 
 serious manner, and in measured words which still echo 
 in my ears like a sentence of death, announced to me 
 that she had been constrained to fix my entrance into 
 the convent from the circumstances both of her own 
 -straitened means as well as my caprice for Domenico. 
 " Your aunts," she continued, " are rich ; in consigning 
 you to their care I am relieved of a heavy charge until 
 I can receive my pension." 
 
 She promised to take me back in two months in 
 case my repugnance to the cloister was not diminished 
 
42' HENRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 by the kindness of the nuns — adding that she could 
 not now retract, she herself having had the Chapter 
 convened. 
 
 " Mama !" I exclaimed, throwing myself at her 
 feet and convulsively embracing her knees — " Mama, 
 for mercy sake do not shut me up ! the very name of 
 convent brings me to despair." 
 
 She stopd up suddenly, and, freeing herself from my 
 embrace, spoke in a severe and determined tone — 
 
 " Your father has left neither dower nor guardian 
 for you ; I alone have the disposal of your fate. All 
 laws, human and divine, enjoin obedience on you ; and, 
 by my faith, you shall obey! " 
 
 I suppressed, as a last sign of protest, my sobs, and 
 remained silent ; any further effort would have been a 
 mere waste of words. If ever under the Bourbon rule 
 the god of silence was the tutelar deity of the orator 
 and the philosopher, how much rather should it be 
 for the young orphan girl, abandoned, and moreover 
 a minor ! 
 
 Seeing me dumb, petrified, with clasped hands and 
 upraised eyes, the most profound consternation ex- 
 pressed in my whole bearing, my mother at last seemed 
 moved to some compassion for her child, and in softer 
 accents and caresses she commenced exhorting me 
 in a tone more consonant with maternal love. The 
 convent,- she said, was not a prison as the world gene- 
 rally represented it, but an asylum of salvation, a 
 
THE CLOISTER. 43 
 
 pure abode where souls superior to social vanities, or 
 satiated with the disenchantments of life, find an 
 atmosphere uncontaminated with the breath of mun- 
 dane passions, and beyond the storms of the age. 
 Moreover, in those asylums would be found in abund- 
 ance, not only spiritual consolations, but all the 
 comforts, the refinements, and even the harmless re- 
 creations of an elegant society. If such were not the 
 case, how should it be that so many hundreds of the 
 daughters of the most illustrious families of Naples 
 should seek refuge there, all bringing to them dowers 
 of considerable amount ? In fine, that my entrance in 
 the cloister would be only a brief trial of two months, 
 at the expiration of which I should, if I then wished 
 it, infallibly recover my liberty, to make what use of 
 it I might wish. This, and still more, was her ex- 
 hortation. 
 
 It had been a question of taking me to the con- 
 vent during the course of the day, but the state of 
 my eyes, swollen to a frightful extent, impeded this 
 intention. 
 
 On the ensuing day, seeing that it was useless to 
 wait for the cessation of my tears, I was ordered to get 
 myself ready ; my mother at one moment breaking 
 out into reproaches, at another into encouragement, 
 saying, "Eest assured I will certainly come to fetch 
 you back in two months." 
 
 On leaving the carriage at the door of the 
 
4-1 HENRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 convent I ascended in grievous depression the first 
 staircase, which leads to a second, that of the 
 Clausura. The portress, on opening the above-men- 
 tioned door, having rung a bell to announce to the 
 sisterhood the arrival of the victim, my aunt, being 
 at that moment in the portress's room, was the first 
 to arrive. In great satisfaction she embraced me, 
 and, in a tone of affable command, whispered me to 
 thank the sisters for the favour they had done me 
 in accepting me as their companion. The revered 
 features and voice of my father, repeated in the 
 countenance and accents of the Abbess, produced such 
 an impression on me that I thought I should have 
 fallen lifeless. 
 
 In the mean time the nuns had gathered round in 
 a crowd to look at me, peering over each other's heads 
 for this purpose, those altogether in the rear mounting 
 upon chairs to stare at me. 
 
 My mother returned thanks for me. She said that 
 the death of my father, and the separation from my 
 family, were the cause of the affliction I appeared to 
 be in. On this head the nuns had begun already in 
 no subdued tones to make their comments, as they 
 had also done on my person generally. 
 
 One said I was pretty, another that she thought me 
 plain ; this one that I seemed amiable, that one that 
 she was sure I was the reverse ; some said that I was 
 tall, others that I was short, &c. I felt humiliated, 
 
THE CLOISTER. 45 
 
 oppressed, and acknowledged to myself that I would 
 rather die than enter a place whose text-book of good 
 breeding promised even on its title-page so little. 
 
 My mother's speech, which was not long, though 
 copiously seasoned with compliments to the sisterhood 
 in my name, was interrupted by the entrance of 
 another of my paternal aunts, whose name was 
 Lucretia. She entered supported by two lay sisters. 
 She had attained an age verging on ninety, but with 
 impaired intellects ; in fact, was in a complete state of 
 dotage. 
 
 The 4th of January was the day appointed for my 
 incarceration, two days after the signing of Josephine's 
 marriage contract. 
 
 Arrived at home again, I refused to eat, and until 
 the fatal day came I never ceased weeping. 
 
 My father's relatives made the most magnanimous 
 efforts to persuade my mother not to sacrifice me. 
 She answered that placing me in a convent of noble 
 ladies for two months was certainly not desiring to 
 sacrifice me. 
 
 In fact, her intention at the time went no farther 
 than this. 
 
 The Princess of Forino offered to take me to reside 
 with her during these two months, and her sons 
 pledged themselves to bring about a marriage for 
 me with the Duke of — — , a distant relative, at that 
 time a widower. My mother declined the Princess's 
 
46 HENRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 courteous offer, and told my cousins that on her 
 return from Calabria they would speak of this 
 marriage. 
 
 General Saluzzi, a connexion and brother officer of 
 my father, and who felt an almost paternal affection 
 for me, gave me the assurance that, whatever should 
 be my lot in life, he would make me a gift of 1000 
 ducats. 
 
 The evening of the 2nd January, which had been 
 fixed on for the betrothal of Josephine, arrived. I 
 accompanied her, but in tears. Inseparable are these 
 from my drama ; they saddened the whole ceremony. 
 Fatal presage for a wedding ! 
 
 At last the morning of the 4th dawned; it was 
 Saturday. I dressed myself almost without knowing 
 what I was doing. It was the fashion at that period 
 to wear the hair in ringlets, and mechanix:ally I was 
 arranging mine in this manner; my mother's voice 
 arrested my fingers. 
 
 " What are you doing ? " she cried. " That is not a 
 proper style of hair-dressing for a convent ; you should 
 wear it plain." 
 
 Irritated beyond measure, I made answer, " But I 
 am certainly not going to a convent to become a nun. 
 I do not intend to change my mode of dressing it 
 merely to stay for two months there." 
 
 " I do not desire that you should become one," she 
 replied, "and you know it; but the Abbess enjoined 
 
THE CLOISTER. 47 
 
 me not to bring you to-day with your hair In ringlets, 
 lest the nuns should call you a coquette." In so 
 saying she took a comb and arranged it in bands. I 
 made no further resistance, for I had no strength to 
 raise my arm. 
 
 In a little time General Saluzzi arrived, and also 
 the daughter-in-law of the Princess of Forino, both of 
 ■whom were to accompany me. 
 
 The long distance which lay between the Ma- 
 donna delle Grazie in the Toledo and the convent 
 of San Gregorio Armeno was traversed by me in a 
 condition which partook of stupor and a state of trance. 
 I seemed to be bound in the torments of a horrible 
 nightmare. The most cherished memories of the past 
 rushed into my mind — a past which was on the brink 
 of separating itself from me for ever. The innocent 
 amusements of childhood shared with companions more 
 fortunate than myself — the tender caresses of my 
 father, and his last fatal words of commiseration — ^the 
 image of my lover. Alas ! this remembrance above 
 all recurred again and again, and shut out all that 
 went on around me. My mother had taken the pre- 
 caution to cover my face with a thick veil, that my 
 tears should not become a public spectacle, but the 
 constant application of my handkerchief to my eyes 
 attracted the attention of the passers by. 
 
 I reached the fatal spot — the door was opened — the 
 monster's jaws received me. I felt myself seized by 
 
48 HENKIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 the hands, dragged upwards, and then pushed along by 
 the shoulders — the ribbon of my bonnet untied — and, 
 lastly, heard the grating bolts of the horrible portal 
 again pushed to ; and when I could distinguish objects, 
 I found myself on my knees before a high gilded 
 lattice. 
 , It was the choir. 
 
 A nun was repeating to me — 
 
 " Return thanks to God for the favour of having 
 conducted you to a holy place." 
 
 I made no answer — I returned no thanks. My 
 reason, which had wavered for a while, having been 
 fully restored to me, one sad thought beset it. 
 
 The prophetic words of my father's death-bed — alas ! 
 too soon fulfilled. 
 
DESERTION. 49 
 
 CHAPTEE VI. 
 
 DESERTION. 
 
 On leaving the choir I was conducted round the 
 convent. 
 
 Two young nuns, sisters, whose names were Con- 
 cettina and Checchina, accompanied me. I had need 
 of air and distraction, and accepted their invitation 
 to show me what was remarkable in the convent. 
 
 I asked for my mother, and was told that, not 
 wishing to detain the Countess ane^ the General, she 
 had left me, but would not fail to return on the fol- 
 lowing day. 
 
 The visit commenced with the temple consecrated to 
 S. Gregorio the Illuminator. It had been asserted, by 
 competent archaeologists that the pavement of that 
 church had been the site of the ancient Temple of 
 Ceres, which, together with that of the Dioscuri, with 
 the vast theatre and the Basilica, circumscribed the 
 Augustan square, which is now occupied by the im- 
 
 E 
 
50 HENRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 mense church and ponvent of San Lorenzo Magglore. 
 This, however, is an error. The position is not appli- 
 cable to the present church, which was built on an 
 entirely different site when the ancient one was de- 
 molished in consequence of the decree of the Council 
 of Trent, which, towards 1580, obliged the nuns to 
 subvert the old order of things, and give a very differ- 
 ent disposition to the interior of the building, according 
 to the rules regulating the severity of the modem 
 cloister. The legend relates that the Temple of Ceres, 
 converted into a Christian sanctuary by the pious wife 
 of Constantius Chlorus, was surrounded by large edifices, 
 and dedicated to San Pantaleone. This, too, is equally 
 erroneous ; if my memory serves me rightly, that 
 Eastern saint flourished after the reign of Constantino 
 the Great. That which is known for certainty belongs 
 to later times, and has special reference to the Icono- 
 clastic persecution which broke out in Constantinople 
 under the rule ofthe Greek Emperor Leo ITsauro, that 
 crowned Luther of the middle ages. A troop of monks 
 and cloistered virgins then emigrated from Greece to 
 shun the fanaticism of the clergy and the reformers. 
 Italy was their refuge ; Rome offered to the orthodox 
 refugees a generous hospitality ; and Naples, which 
 had in common with the Greeks not only origin, and 
 much of language and manners, but also the same 
 rites, liturgy, and submission to the same hierarchy — 
 Naples, I say, and the adjacent provinces, saw them- 
 
DESERTION. 51 
 
 selves within the space of a century burdened with 
 these exiles, who, as soon as they reconstructed them- 
 selves into religious communities, erected their num- 
 berless cloisters, under the rule of St. Basil. Authors 
 worthy of all credit relate, that in these our southern 
 provinces alone (not including Sicily) about a thousand 
 Greek monasteries, great and small, held sway up to 
 the half of the fifteenth century under the above-men- 
 tioned rule. 
 
 The church and monastery of which I speak boast of 
 an antiquity above all the others of the same order which 
 have been founded in Naples, and had for patron San 
 Gregorio Armeno, because the fugitive nuns, who had 
 fixed their abode there, brought with them the relics 
 of this Armenian saint. The fall of the Greek empire, 
 occasioned by the conquest of Mahomet II., and the 
 subjugation of the Byzantine Patriarchate, which was 
 the religious head of it, put an extinction to the cha- 
 racter as well as the Oriental rite which the Basilian 
 order had up to this point preserved in Italy. But, 
 for reasons not sufficiently known, the nunneries aban- 
 doned the rule of St. Basilio, to embrace the other, not 
 very dissimilar, of St. Benedict, even before the monks 
 of the Basilian rule had all been Latinized, an event 
 which took place after those three formidable and con- 
 secutive crises of the ^Vestern Church — the Reforma- 
 tion, Jesuitism, and the Council of Trent. These took 
 place in the sixteenth century. 
 
 E 2 
 
62 HE^'RIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 In the faqade of the church of San Gregorio, upon 
 an elevated basement with three arches, two other 
 orders are raised, the Composite upon the Doric. 
 A few steps lead to the spacious vestibule with four 
 columns, upon which rests the grand choir of the 
 nuns ; at the end is the principal entrance of the 
 church, which contains a single nave with four chapels 
 on each side, and two vacancies of equal size to that 
 of the chapels, occupied in front by two organs ; one 
 of these vacancies serves as passage to the sacristy 
 and one of the lesser doors, the other for the confes- 
 sionals. A balustrade divides the nave from the pres- 
 bytery, where stands the high altar, between four arches 
 of similar construction which sustain the cupola. 
 
 The entire architecture is Composite, but super- 
 abundantly loaded with ornament — cornice, foliage, 
 and decoration of all kinds, all gilt, and in the plain or 
 flat gilt portion damascened ; and where there is no 
 gilding, the space is painted in fresco ; all which 
 things are more the belongings of the sumptuousness 
 of rich baronial palaces or theatres than the religious 
 simplicity of the Lord's house. The large door is of 
 walnut sculptured with admirable reliefs of the four 
 Evangelists ; and in the centre the two saints, Stephen 
 and Lawrence, surrounded with ornamental work. 
 The ceiling, which is of carved wood and gilt, is 
 divided into three principal compartments, in which are 
 encased three pictures, by Teodoro il Fiammingo, re- 
 
DESERTION. 53 
 
 presenting St. Gregory with an open volume in his 
 hands, between two assistants, at the altar ; the same 
 saint receiving the nuns into his order ; and the 
 Baptism of the Redeemer. The two organs, situated, 
 together with the orchestras, in the two vacant spaces, 
 are overloaded with the most bizarre reliefs, gilt with 
 refined gold. The chapels are adorned with mosaic 
 of choice and varied marble, and all have a balustrade 
 of marble, of the same mosaic composition, in raised 
 and perforated foliage ; above this ornaments of bronze ; 
 and in the middle a small gate of the same design and 
 metal. 
 
 Of the paintings, the three which stand above the 
 door — in which are represented the arrival and the 
 reception which the,. Greek nuns received in Naples, — 
 those placed between the windows representing facts 
 in the life of St. Gregory, those in the lesser compart- 
 ments above the arches, the others of the cupola, and 
 finally those of the grand choir — all which represent 
 the history of St. Benedict, — are all from the hand of 
 Luca Giordano. And I may remark, that of the three 
 pictures above the entrance, in that which is on the left 
 of the spectator, in the head of the individual in the 
 act of pointing out a spot to the nuns, who have just 
 reached the shore in a boat, the painter has represented 
 his own portrait at the age of fifty, the age he had 
 then attained. 
 
 Behind the high altar, which is constructed after the 
 
54 HENRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 designs of Dion Lazzari, stands the large picture of 
 the Ascension of our Lord, the work of Bernardo 
 Lama. In the first chapel on the right is a picture of 
 the Annunciation, remarkable for its fine colouring, 
 painted by Pacecco de Rosa. The third chapel is 
 dedicated to St. Gregorio Armeno, and is both larger 
 and more decorated than the others. Upon the altar 
 and between two columns of red marble is a much- 
 esteemed painting by Francesco de Maria, representing 
 the sainted bishop seated and surrounded by angels. 
 Upon the lateral walls are figured, in two compositions, 
 the Saint, whilst King Thiridates advances in anj atti- 
 tude of humiliation, his face transformed into that of a 
 hog ; and in the other, at the moment of his being 
 drawn forth from the Lake of Ararat, where he had 
 dwelt with much sufiering for fourteen years. These 
 two pictures, painted with much force, truth of colour, 
 and beautiful effect of light, are due to the pencil of 
 Francesco Fracanzano, a disciple of Spagnoletto. The 
 ceiling of this chapel is divided into several compart- 
 ments, in which, in much smaller dimensions, are 
 represented various acts of the life of San Gregorio, by 
 the abovementioned Francesco de Maria. These 
 frescoes are said to have called forth the admiration 
 and praise of Giordano. In the fourth chapel, the 
 painting of the Madonna of the Rosary is from the 
 hand of Niccolo the Melancholy, a scholar of Giordano. 
 Of the chapels on the left, the first has an oil-painting 
 
DESERTION. 55 
 
 of the Nativity, of the school of Marco di Siena ; the 
 third a picture of the Beheading of the Baptist, by 
 Silvestro Morvillo, surnamed Bruno ; the fourth, St. 
 Benedict worshipping the Virgin, who appears above, 
 attributed to Spagnoletto. 
 
 On the morning of the 3rd of March, 1443, being 
 Sunday, King Alfonzo I. of Aragon placed on his 
 son Ferrante's head a circlet of gold, and in his hand a 
 sword whose hilt was embossed with gems, thus con- 
 firming him as Duke of Calabria, and his successor to 
 the kingdom, as the day previous he had been pro- 
 claimed in full convocation of the Parliament in the 
 hall of the Chapter in San Lorenzo. This ceremony 
 was conducted with regal pomp in the presence of the 
 barons and the whole court, in the old church above 
 mentioned as having been demolished. 
 
 In that same church were preserved, up to the year 
 1574, the burial-places of the nuns, and the bones of 
 other defunct, in tombs which bear dates from the 
 earliest period of the monastery, according to the chro- 
 nicle of Dame Fulvia Caracciolo, one of my ancestors, 
 and a nun in the above monastery, who lived about the 
 period at which the cloister was first introduced. She 
 leaves a moving picture of the transposition of these 
 remains from the ancient church to a locality of greater 
 security during the abbesship of Lucrezia Caracciolo^ 
 " There was nothing," she writes, " in the church save 
 these vaults which contained the bodies of the defunct 
 
56 HENRIETTA CAEACCIOLO. 
 
 sisters, and, since they remained uncovered, it smote 
 our hearts sorely that we had no spot wherein we might 
 bestow the bones of our predecessors, the more so, as 
 many of these bodies were of fresh date, and to displace 
 which (for the bodies were entire) was such grief to us 
 that each of us felt on the point of fainting. At last, 
 on the night of the 20th of October of the said year 
 1574, not to infuse horror and terror among the sisters, 
 I, together with Donna Beatrice Carafa, Donna Ca- 
 milla Fersala, Donna Isabella and Donna Giovanna di 
 Loffredo, having first secured the doors of the church, 
 and reciting the service for the dead, caused the vaults 
 to be emptied in our presence, using every possible 
 despatch that they should be well cleaned, replaced the 
 bones in another vault, observing the same disposition. 
 We caused as many coffins to be constructed as there 
 were biers, and, replacing in those the above bones, we 
 affixed an inscription on each for recognitioa" This 
 passage, which I have read more than once in the 
 above manuscripts, has made me each time shudder at 
 the thought that my bones, destined to remain in the 
 care of my companions in seclusion, might be subjected 
 to similar transportation. 
 
 It is 'also through this chronicle that we have our 
 information of the ancient style of dress of the Bene- 
 dictine nuns, and their offices, out of the Longobardo 
 books. " Anent then the mode of dress we used, I will 
 say that we were, attired in white, with tunics however 
 
DESERTION. 57 
 
 shaped like a sack, precisely like those worn by widowed 
 women, but of the finest and whitest material. On the 
 head we wore a Greek bandage, disposed with great 
 modesty. 
 
 " We read out of ancient Lombard books, and thus 
 spent the greater part of our lives in reciting the Holy 
 Office, it being at this time recited at great length and 
 with much solemnity by us. When the nuns professed, 
 the ceremony was performed on three different days 
 and in three different modes. First they were pro- 
 fessed by the hand of the Abbess a day after the cele- 
 bration of vespers, when the hair was cut off. After 
 some months or years, according to their age, they 
 took the second step, which gave them some rank in 
 the choir. The third step was taken at the full age, 
 from fifteen upwards, and on the taking of which the 
 mass of the Holy Ghost was performed, and whilst that 
 was repeated the hair was again cut. In this operation 
 we cut the hair in the form of a garland round the 
 head, disposed in seven tresses, at the extremity of 
 each of which the Abbess attaches a pellet of white 
 wax ; and we remained thus until after the celebration ; 
 but this terminated, the Mother cut off these tresses 
 and covered the head with a white veil, and we placed 
 over the white a black garment, having till then worn 
 only the former j the black being half a hand's-breadth 
 shorter than that beneath it. Without this it was not 
 permitted to appear in the choir on festas, and the 
 
58 HENRIETTA CAEACCIOLO, 
 
 wearers of this dress had the prerogative of an active 
 and passive share in the affairs, and a participation in the 
 goods of the monastery. We wore this same dress on 
 the last days of our life ; we died and were buried in 
 it. On burial-days we officiated in the choir cloak, 
 without which the shortest prayer could not be re- 
 peated, and this was sedulously observed by us at that 
 period." 
 
 In spite of these rigorous rules, it is yet true that the 
 nuns of that period passed freely from one to the other 
 of the different residences and possessions of the monas- 
 tery, to take up their abode there for several weeks at 
 a time. They went out from the morning to the even- 
 ing through the permission of the Abbess, and remained 
 for days, and even months, in their parents' house, as 
 is practised, to the honour of the monastic order, in 
 the cloister of the Greek Church, even up to our day. 
 With them the authority of the canons of Trent are 
 not recognised. 
 
 Various relics of saints and martyrs, to which the 
 monkish and vulgar superstition attributes the power of 
 miracles, are preserved. Besides the head of St. Gre- 
 gory the Illuminator, said to be brought over by the 
 nuns in their flight, are those of St. Stephen and St. 
 Blaise, covered with silver ; a portion of the true cross ; 
 one arm of St. Pantaleone, another of St. Lawrence ; 
 the chain of St. Gregory Armeno, and the straps of 
 leather with which the saint was scourged — both ob- 
 
DESERTION. 59 
 
 jects, through supernatural prerogative, said to have 
 the power of healing the possessed ; the blood of St. 
 Stephen and that of St. Pantaleone, which, if in a state 
 of perpetual liquefaction, is nevertheless not seen of 
 different colours, as that of the same martyr, which is 
 worshipped in the church of Santa Maria in Vallicello, 
 and in the cathedral of Amalfi. This sacred ana- 
 tomical cabinet gives occasion to festivals which do not 
 fail to be marked by miraculous events. 
 
 The convent constructed round the church is of 
 immense extent. On entering, by the external en- 
 trance we perceive a commodious staircase, which leads 
 to a second door, over which are some chiaroscuro 
 paintings by Giacomo del Po, and which gives entrance 
 to the different Parlatorii (reception rooms). Rich in 
 ornament, inexhaustible in conveniences, of princely 
 magnificence, is the interior of the convent, the abode 
 of women sufficiently elevated in the nobility of their 
 lineage not to admit within their congregation a 
 maiden who cannot reckon a descent from one of the 
 four patrician stocks of Naples. Extensive and beau- 
 tiful is the part allotted to the dormitories, not less so 
 the refectory. The choir, which joins the church, is of 
 great space ; the cloister of great extent, with a foun- 
 tain in the centre, and two statues — Christ and the 
 Samaritan woman — sculptured by Matteo Battiglieri ; 
 immense and charming terraces, raised above the con- 
 vent, adorned with flowers and paintings, and from 
 
60 HENRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 whence one of the most beautiful views of Naples is 
 enjoyed, extending over the adjacent hills and moun- 
 tains, over the part of the city which lies beneath, over 
 the sea, and the charming, environs. 
 
 Besides these, there is to be seen in the monastery 
 the chapel of Santa Maria dell' Idria (corruption of 
 the Greek word Odigitria), containing the Byzantine 
 image of the Virgin, worshipped under this title ; 
 paintings by Paolo de Matteis ; a chapel sumptuous in 
 the extreme. Finally, the Hall of Archives, where, 
 amongst the other historical monuments, is preserved 
 the above mentioned chronicle of the Caracciolo family, 
 a document of considerable value. 
 
 But it is time to return to the vicissitudes of my own 
 lot. 
 
 The novelty of the place, of the persons — the various 
 and numerous objects in it — the costumes — served to 
 distract me in some degree. It was for me a new 
 world, as yet entirely unknown. 
 
 During our progress we encountered many of the 
 sisters, one and all of whom put the invariable question 
 to me — 
 
 " Are you going to take the veil ? " 
 
 I answered "No." 
 
 "Ah! when you have once got San Benedetto's 
 flannel on, you will never get it off again," was the 
 rejoinder to this, accompanied by a smile of supreme 
 conviction. 
 
DESERTION. 61 
 
 A few days prior to my entraBce into the convent, 
 my aunt's servant came one evening with the commu- 
 nication to me that a young sister, named Paolina, 
 had desired to become ray confidante and inseparable 
 companion as soon as I should have entered the 
 convent. I had now been many hours there, and had 
 observed no other near me but the two sisters who 
 had accompanied me on my visit, and who had been 
 appointed by my aunt to this office. Of these I now 
 inquired which was the nun named Paolina. 
 
 They replied that she was a young nun who was 
 always in the society of two of the pupils. 
 
 I then remembered having observed her walking in 
 company with two such, and that she had rather excited 
 my astonishment in having been the only one who had 
 not accosted or even saluted me. 
 
 Proceeding for some short distance along the arched 
 corridor of the ground-story, we again encountered her. 
 I smiled as she passed ; and had the mortification to 
 perceive, as I did so, that, instead of responding to it, 
 she and her companions were passing some sneering 
 remark in an under-tone between them. 
 - Concettina then asked of me why I had inquired for 
 this nun, and where I had known her. 
 
 I related the message above alluded to. The sister 
 then remeoabered that Paolina, having had a fall-out 
 with her friends, had, in order to annoy them, sent me 
 that message ; but that, since having made it up with 
 
62 HENRIETTA CAEACCIOLO. 
 
 them, she had given them a promise that she would 
 never come near me— as they were abeady jealous of 
 me. 
 
 " Jealous ! " I exclaimed, perfectly thunderstruck. 
 " Are there, then, jealousies here ? " 
 
 " Not a doubt of it ; it would not be this place if 
 there were not," repeated the sisters in chorus. 
 
 " Woe is me ! " I added ; " then must there be the 
 discords which are inseparable from these ; and pesti- 
 lential must be the discords of a house hermetically 
 sealed and shut up from the beneficial influences of the 
 rest of humanity ! " 
 
 I soon became aware that my intercourse lay with 
 women who, though noble by birth, had received but 
 negative training in all that regarded the noblest attri- 
 butes of the soul. I had waited for night with much 
 longing, that I might give free vent to my grief — 
 imagining that I should have a room to myself. I was 
 however, to my disappointment, shown my bed in the 
 room of my aunt the Abbess ; and, by the side of mine, 
 that of her maid. Thus was I again denied the relief 
 of my tears. When my aunt had got into bed she 
 began to recite her prayers in an under-tone, and I had 
 to tolerate the tiresome and frivolous questions of the 
 maid. 
 
 This woman, whose name was Angela Maria, was 
 from 30 to 32 years of age, of an iron frame, under- 
 sized jtnd stout, with large mouth and discoloured 
 
DESERTION. 63 
 
 teeth ; moreover, deeply pitted with the smallpox. 
 Superadded to these unprepossessing traits was a habit 
 at one moment of laughing immoderately, at another 
 of scowling fixedly, whilst a pair of large eyes, which 
 seemed ready to start from her head, kept in incessant 
 motion, — unmannered, inattentive to my old aunt, and 
 petulant whenever the latter interrupted her incessant 
 chattering with some order. 
 
 At last she got into bed and soon fell asleep, and 
 then I could give free scope in silence to my sad 
 thoughts. 
 
 After the few hours of sleep which my very weariness 
 yielded me, I was roused by Angela Maria before day- 
 break, to ask me if I would attend the first or the 
 second mass. Had this been done by my own maid, 
 I should have read her a lecture ; but overcome by the 
 moral depression which hung heavily on me, I made no 
 resistance. I answered then with a sigh — 
 
 " Whichever you please." 
 
 Making me dress, and taking me familiarly by the 
 hand, in the manner she would lead a blind person, she 
 conducted me down to the Communion, where I found 
 certain of the nuns hearing mass and receiving the 
 sacrament. 
 
 At 10 o'clock my mother arrived. I was summoned, 
 and found her in the parlour. On seeing her I wept 
 bitterly, and told her I felt most wretched in a place 
 compared to which imprisonment would be less sufier- 
 
64 HE^TRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 iiig to me; the greatest martyrdom I could endure 
 would be to be made to live with people of no mind or 
 education; that they already spoke of making me a 
 nun, and I was already dependent on the will and 
 pleasure of my aunt's maid. 
 
 My mother was about to reply, when the portress 
 entered, ushering in some of the nuns who wished to 
 pay their respects to her. After a few minutes' conver- 
 sation with them, she expressed her desire to go and hear 
 mass in the neighbouring church of San Lorenzo, say- 
 ing she would return when it was over. She left the 
 parlour, and I remained outside, pacing up and down 
 the corridor waiting for her. An hour passed— an hour 
 and a half — without her return. Disappointed at her 
 delay, I addressed the portress, requesting her to send 
 one of the numerous women who were about the door 
 of the convent to the church of San Lorenzo to see 
 what caused my mother to tarry. 
 
 The portress took hold of my hand. " Don't be 
 vexed, my dear," she said. " Your mother has gone, 
 and does not intend to return." 
 
 I was petrified. I knew she was to leave me, but not 
 on the very day after she had shut me up, and that with- 
 out telling me. Had the portress not supported me, 
 I should have fallen to the ground. My nervous 
 system, highly excitable by nature, had already re- 
 ceived a severe shock, and this brought on a crisis. I 
 was seized with fits. 
 
DESERTION. 65 
 
 When I had recovered my senses and reopened my 
 eyes, I saw myself surrounded by a troop of nuns, lay 
 sisters, pupils, all strangers to me, all intent on feed- 
 ing the curiosity, idleness, or apathy, which attaches 
 to their condition, on the spectacle of my suffering- 
 agitation. One was whispering here, another making 
 her comments there ; a third, with an expression of 
 sarcasm, was sneering elsewhere. Not one amongst 
 them turned on me an expression or an accent of 
 sincere compassion. 
 
 The Doctor Rouche (one of the physicians of the 
 convent), who at that moment entered the room, 
 came immediately to my assistance. Fever super» 
 vened, and I was confined to my bed for a week. 
 
 When destiny is adverse, misfortunes come linked in 
 pairs. After I had been a month in the cloister I 
 began to believe that Domenico also had forsaken me. 
 Up to that I had cherished the hope in this my living 
 tomb — the sweet hope — ^not only to receive some intel- 
 ligence from him, but even to know him returned to 
 Naples and become my liberator. If his affection 
 equalled mine, if generous sentiments had a place in 
 his breast, if the voice of humanity whispered in his 
 heart, if the remembrance of my truth and constancy 
 had power in his soul over vile interest, how could he 
 bear that I should fall a victim to the lealty I had 
 sworn to him? How often have I looked for him 
 in the church — how often, with feverish palpitating 
 
66 HENRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 nnxiousness, looked along the street from the heights 
 df the Belvedere — in vain ! my head would sink on my 
 breast, and I could only murmur " He has forsaken me !" 
 My mother never again mentioned him in her letters. 
 I saw Josephine from time to time, but General Saluzzi 
 was the only one whom I saw often. My other rela- 
 tives — friends — lover — had already forgotten the un- 
 happy orphan. It might be said that an abyss already 
 severed me from the entire world in spite of those 
 accords which still echoed in tender tones in my heart. 
 And yet in the midst of this abandonment one sublime 
 consolation tempered my suffering — that of raising my 
 spirit to that God of Divine love, who was born, who 
 lived, and died, not for the mute horrors of the desert, 
 for the lifeless solitude, but for the salvation of hu- 
 manity, bound in one vast family by a sole and indisso- 
 luble law of union. 
 
 One evening in February I was alone on the ter- 
 race ; the expiring rays of the setting sun lit the sum- 
 mits only of Vesuvius and the heights above Castella- 
 mare, whose snows still reflected a brilliancy which 
 retarded the approach of twilight. An unusual silence 
 reigned around. The boisterous carnival hour had 
 drawn the populace to the more crowded centres of the 
 city, so that the quarter of San Lorenzo, in which the 
 convent stood, remained altogether deserted. The 
 distant echo of the mob's exultation, like the roar of 
 the distant sea, was the only sound that reached my ear. 
 
DESERTION, 67 
 
 A new-felt emotion seized me — in the free air, under 
 the spacious vault of heaven, I felt myself alone, it is 
 true, as at first, but not isolated. The voice of our 
 Lord called me to the contemplation of His mercy : I 
 sank on my knees, and joined my hands in prayer — 
 with tearful and upraised eyes I implored the Omni- 
 potent's aid : 
 
 " Who am I ? " I exclaimed, as I rose and wiped 
 away my tears ; " and what are my sufferings compared 
 to those of the land to which I belong ? If all Italy 
 languishes under the double yoke of spiritual and tem- 
 poral tyranny, shall I, an insignificant unit, look for a 
 life of content and prosperity when so many millions 
 groan in oppression ? " 
 
 V 2 
 
68 HENRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 " THEIE KEVEEENCES." 
 
 Behold me, then, separated for an indefinite time 
 'from that society in whose communion I had lived 
 for twenty years, launched at one throw into the 
 narrow limits of a negative world, in intimate and 
 daily intercourse with nuns, monks, and priests ! 
 
 Shall I take advantage of this shipwreck to point 
 out to the readers some shoals as yet unexplored, to 
 reveal some traits of cloister-life which, up to this 
 hour, have remained inaccessible to all but a woman ? 
 i will make the effort. 
 
 Before resuming the thread of my narrative, in 
 whose changing scenes clerical despotism and monastic 
 demoralization will take a prominent part, it will not, 
 I flatter myself, be unwelcome to the reader, to lay 
 before him a cursory review of the ecclesiastical 
 establishments which exist throughout our Peninsula, 
 and more particularly those of Naples. The condition 
 
" THEIR REVERENCES." 69 
 
 both of the regular and secular clergy has too close 
 a reference to my Memoirs, as well at the period at 
 which it was my misfortune to feel its pressure, as 
 after the national regeneration, that I should not 
 deem it necessary to introduce here some notices 
 adapted to throw light upon the scene in which the 
 following episodes took place. 
 
 Conscious not less of my incompetence than of the 
 limited nature of this work, I certainly do not intend 
 risking any lengthened criticism on the condition, 
 either past or present, of the clergy in Italy. My 
 intention being only to display in a rapid review the 
 frightful proportions of the social disease which in- 
 fests our land, even to this day, I will confine myself 
 to the authority of figures, whose positive and per- 
 suasive eloquence can prevail more on public opinion 
 than any rhetoric. These figures being drawn from 
 statistical tables and official documents published in 
 the course of the last twenty years, the reader may 
 rely upon their correctness — a correctness unblemished 
 by- the adulterations which party spirit is wont to 
 introduce. 
 
 It is an incontestable fact, that, when we consider 
 the extent of territory and of population, there is not 
 a Catholic or Christian state which possesses so large 
 a number of sees, of secular priests, of churches, of 
 monasteries, of monks, of nuns, as are reckoned in our 
 land. Italy, which possesses the fatal privilege of 
 
70 HENRIETTA CAEACCIOLO. 
 
 being called the Levitical State, /Jar excellence, amongst 
 all the cultivated nations of Europe, appeared, at the 
 conclusion of the last century, under the guise of a 
 vast monastic congregation. 
 
 f » The secularizing breath of modem civilization, 
 although driven back, and at times dispelled, by the 
 conjoined agency of two indigenous enemies, equally 
 adverse to the emancipation of conscience and of rea- 
 son, still did not fail to penetrate, by little and little, 
 Into these regions. But, in spite of the silent revolu- 
 tions of principles and customs, which, in the present 
 and preceding centuries, had brought about the spon- 
 taneous extinction of several orders, and the fusion of 
 many ecclesiastical establishments into one — in spite 
 of the active assiduity with which the French occu- 
 pation, at the period of the Republic, restricted within 
 the narrowest limits possible the monstrous growth of 
 the secular clergy, and suppressed, as well in Pied- 
 mont as in the ex-Bourbon kingdom, a vast number 
 of monasteries (about 200 in the southern part of the 
 Peninsula alone) — in spite of the more recent pro- 
 vision of the Italian Government for the gradual 
 extinction of monachism — Italy still continues to be, 
 as it was in the past, the Levitical land par excellence, 
 and to be burdened with such an amount of pre- 
 lacies and hierarchies, such a number of the regular 
 and secular clergy, as far exceeds the wants of the 
 nation. 
 
"their reverences." 71 
 
 Greater still is the proportion of monasteries of 
 different orders. One of the most accredited organs 
 of the French press remarks on this subject, in 
 comparing its own country with Italy : — " In France, 
 at the period above-mentioned, there were in exist- 
 ence 1081 abbeys, of which 800 were of men and 
 281 of women ; 619 chapters, of which 24 were 
 composed of the daughters of the noblesse. Let us 
 turn to Italy. Italy, with a population of little more 
 than twenty-four millions contrasted with the thirty- 
 seven millions of France, is overspread by 82 religious 
 orders and 2382 convents, which amounts to saying 
 that, in 1864, it continues to possess double the 
 number of convents which existed in France in 1789 
 — a country notably more extensive and more 
 populous. 
 
 The sum total of these 2382 convents is thus 
 divided : 15,500 professed monks, 18,198 professed 
 nuns, 4474 lay-friars, and 7671 lay-sisters — in all, 
 45,845 — equal to the population of one of the lesser 
 states of the German Confederation. 
 
 " Let lis contrast also " (continues the Delats) " the 
 possessions of the clergy in France in 1789, and that 
 of the clergy of Italy. In 1864 we find it in Italy, 
 together with corporations, bishoprics, buildings, pre- 
 bendaries, possessing a rental ofiacially calculated at 
 75,266,216 Italian lire (francs), whilst the French 
 clergy were in the receipt of 133,000,000." And 
 
72 HENRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 its rental might be estimated without exaggera- 
 tion at a fourth of the whole of France. When the 
 decree of the 2nd of November, 1789, declared this 
 to be national property, it was estimated at a mil- 
 liard and a hundred millions. 
 
 The possessions of the Italian clergy amounted to 
 close on two milliards, or a tenth less than the double 
 of that possessed by the opulent clergy of one of the 
 most opulent, powerful, and populous nations of the 
 earth. 
 
 From special computation let us now pass to gene- 
 ral. The following enumeration is drawn from sta- 
 tistical reckoning lately published in the official 
 gazette of Naples : — The secular and regular clergy 
 in the entire of Italy amounted, in 1857-58 to 
 189,800 members — i. e. 1 in 142 of the laity, which, 
 in round numbers, may be thus given : — 
 
 82,000 in Naples and Sicily. 
 40,000 in the ex-Pontifical States. 
 31,900 in Central Italy. 
 16,500 in the ex-Saidinian States. 
 10,700 in Lombardia. 
 8,700 in the Venetian territory — equal to § of the ecclesiastical 
 body of Home alone, it reckoning 12,000. 
 
 Besides this, we had in Italy alone, of bishops and 
 archbishops, 269, equivalent to little less than half of 
 the sees of the whole of Europe, and wanting but one- 
 third of the bishoprics of the entire Catholic world, 
 which were from 814 to 816. 
 
"THEIR REVERENCES." 73 
 
 To this sum of 189,800 ecclesiastics residing in 
 Italy, if we add that of others of the same nation who 
 do not reside there, being distributed in different 
 missions, and likewise the list of acolytes of the 
 " Ordini Minori," novices, unprofessed nuns, and the 
 class of so-called city-nuns, we shall have a total, in 
 round numbers, of about 200,000, which is equivalent 
 to 1 ecclesiastic in 46 adults. 
 
 The general statistic having been considered, we 
 come, finally, to that of Naples, and the following 
 will show how, twenty years back, the clergy was 
 distributed in the degrees of quality and number : — 
 
 Aiclibishops 3 
 
 Bishops 7 
 
 Chapter of Canons of the archbishopric 30 
 
 College of the Seminarists 22 
 
 "Quarantisti" of the Metropolitan 18 
 
 Chaplains of the Eoyal Chapel of the Treasury of St. ) jg 
 
 Gennaro i 
 
 Chapter of Canons of St. Giovanni Maggiore IS 
 
 Eectors attached to the archbishopric of Naples 45 
 
 Boyal Chaplains, Chaplains, Titulars honorary and 1 g^ 
 
 extraordinary I 
 
 Priests , 3027 
 
 Total 3211 
 
 The number of parishes in Naples amounts to 50 ; 
 that of churches to 257 ; of confraternities to 174 ; 
 " Congreghe di Spirito," 8 ; chapels for night- 
 services (Capelle Serali), 57. 
 
 As to the regular clergy, we can add a more 
 minute list, extracted from the authorized census. 
 
74 
 
 HENRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 which, about the same time, was published in the 
 work entitled 'Napoli e sua Vicinanza.' It distin- 
 guishes them by orders, by number of monasteries, 
 by sex, by the number of individuals, and by 
 quality. 
 
 B^ligioos Orders— Men. 
 
 Monastery. 
 
 Number of Individuals 
 according to 
 
 lieligloiu 
 Order. 
 
 Biformati 
 
 Of Gerusalemme a Monte 
 
 Calvaiio 
 
 Of St. Pietro ad Aram 
 
 Of the Salute 
 
 Of Miano 
 
 ^Of Sta. Chiara 
 
 Alcantarini 
 
 Sta. Lucia del Monte . 
 St. Fasquale a Chiaja 
 TheSanitk 
 
 ISant' Efrem Vecchio 
 Sanf Efrem Nuovo ... 
 La Trentatri 
 
 {San Francesco a Santa 
 Maria la Nuova , 
 San Severo Maggioie . . , 
 
 ^^caM^'^jS*- -^-S"^" ^* 2;ecca.., 
 
 Agostiniani) ^Sta. Maria Maddalena de'\ 
 
 calze. n Spagnuoli / 
 
 Id. Bcalze j Sta. Msiria deUa Veritk . 
 Id. calze I San Carlo alle Mortelle.... 
 
 Be-Mti {O^Srt 
 
 11 
 
 94 
 38 
 11 
 
 7 
 
 101 
 49 
 47 
 
 25 
 
 66 
 
 6 
 
 197 
 36 
 
 41 
 
 30 
 
 20 
 
 7 
 
 10 
 12 
 
 161 
 
 197 
 
 97 
 
 233 
 
 41 
 
 57 
 
 22 
 
" THEIR EEVEKENCES." 
 
 75 
 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 Number of Individuals 
 according to 
 
 Religious Orders— Men. 
 
 Monastery. 
 
 Religious 
 Order. 
 
 
 1 
 
 i 
 ■t 
 
 Si 
 
 i 
 
 > 
 
 o 
 
 15 
 
 
 1 
 1 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 2 
 
 1 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 28 
 
 16 
 
 35 
 
 7 
 38 
 
 20 
 15 
 19 
 
 n 
 
 38 
 
 45 
 12 
 
 16 
 
 59 
 4 
 
 9 
 6 
 
 2 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 7 
 
 6 
 
 34 
 
 13 
 
 16 
 
 8 
 
 2 
 1 
 
 28 
 16 
 35 
 
 45 
 20 
 15 
 
 'so 
 
 33 
 
 57 
 
 16 
 63 
 
 15 
 
 
 
 
 Ste.^nLi}'' Santa Maria di Piedigrotta 
 
 2 
 
 Carmeliteim ) Santa Teresa a Chiaja 
 
 scalze. /Santa Teresa agli Studi 
 
 Certosini , . SanMartino 
 
 H 
 
 Chieriei 1 
 
 Eegolari di San Francesco Caracoiolo 
 Minori. 
 
 Chieriei 1 Santa Maria in Portico 
 
 Eegolari [ 
 
 Simplioi. ) Santa Brigida 
 
 Sacra Famiglia di Gesu Christo detta de' ) 
 CSnesi / 
 
 Padri della jNella Casa de' Virgini 
 
 7 
 
 6 
 
 34 
 29 
 
 Oongrega- j 
 zione del g, Antonio di Tarsia 
 
 
 Santiasimo j 
 Eedentore. J 
 
 MinoriCon- j San Lorenzo Maggiore 
 
 ventuali 1 Ospizio a Largo Santa Gate- 1 
 Iden. ) rina a Chiaja ) 
 
 f^ .- • /Mannesi 
 
 Crocifen... jp^^jj.^ SanGennaro 
 
 8 
 3 
 
 
 
76 
 
 HENRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 ll 
 
 •s 
 
 1 
 
 Number of Individuals 
 according to 
 
 Religious Ordcre— Men. 
 
 Monastery. 
 
 Religions 
 Order. 
 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 la 
 
 Dottiinari 
 
 Domenifiani 
 
 Compagnia 
 Mercedarii.. 
 Minimi di 
 
 Casa di San Mcola de' Caserti 
 
 S. Domenlco Maggiore 
 
 [San Pietro Martire 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 65 
 11 
 
 117 
 
 16 
 
 10 
 
 14 
 
 18 
 9 
 
 28 
 
 32 
 
 22 
 
 5 
 
 26 
 
 18 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 7 
 
 1 
 6 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 6 
 
 76 
 
 117 
 16 
 
 24 
 
 27 
 
 28 
 32 
 
 27 
 
 26 
 18 
 
 3 
 
 di Gesil 
 
 
 ,Sant' Oraola a Cliiaja 
 
 
 S. Fr. di 
 Paola. 
 
 Alia Stella 
 
 9 
 
 PiiOperai 
 
 Padrl deir 
 lomini,,,. 
 
 Scolopi ... 
 
 San Gio- 
 vanni di 
 
 f San Nicola alia Caritk 
 
 San Giorgio Maggiore 
 
 Oratorio o Filippini a Gero- 
 
 Sau Carlo a MorteUe 
 
 alia Pace 
 
 1 
 6 
 
 3 
 
 Die. 
 
 Santa 
 
 ad Collea 
 
 
 Gatenna. 
 
 Chierioi 
 Eegolari 
 
 San Paolo 
 
 9 
 
 Teatini. 
 
 Congrega- 
 zione del 
 
 Beato 
 Pietro da 
 
 Pisa. 
 
 Santa Maria delle Gtazie) 
 Maggiore J 
 
 6 
 
 
 Total 
 
 52 
 
 1588 
 
 176'l588 
 
 1 
 
 176 
 
 
"THEIR EEVEKEJICES" 
 
 77 
 
 Keligious Orders of Women. 
 
 Domeni- 
 cane. 
 
 Frances- 
 cane. 
 
 Cappueomeli 
 
 iSante, Caterina da Siena 
 San Giovanni 
 Sapienza 
 
 iSan Francesco Iscariota alle, 
 Florentine / 
 Donna Begina 
 Santa Maria del Gesii 
 Santa Chiara 
 
 San Francesco a Pontecorvo 
 Trentatrfe 
 
 (Santa Teresa alia Salita del 
 Vomero , 
 
 jal 
 
 Divino Amore . 
 
 Teresiane 
 
 Concezion- 
 iste. 
 
 iDonnalbiua 
 San Gregorio Armeno 
 Santa Fatrizia 
 
 Sagrament- 
 iste. 
 
 >Adoratrici perpetue 
 
 Carmelitane..Santa Croce di Luca 
 
 Teatine ... Suor Orsola 
 
 Eomite ... Suor Orsola 
 
 CanoDicliesse 1 ^^^^ ^^^ ___ 
 
 Iiateranensi. ) 
 
 IS. Maria Egiziaca Maggiore 
 
 Agostinianej Santa Monica.; 
 
 (S. Andrea delle Monache ... 
 
 Sorelle dellafEegina Ooeli .. 
 CariBi. \Costantinopoli 
 
 Total .. 
 
 Kumber of Individuals 
 according to 
 
 convent. ^^^^^' 
 
 29 
 59 
 58 
 
 45 
 
 69 
 42 
 
 78 
 
 29 
 31 
 
 21 
 
 35 
 
 43 
 56 
 33 
 
 96 
 
 85 
 40 
 22 
 
 1094 
 
 7 
 13 
 11 
 
 160 
 
 330 
 
 146 
 
 234 
 
 60 
 
 1 
 
 35 
 
 132 
 
 96 
 
 85 
 40 
 22 
 
 117 
 1094 
 
 39 
 
 24 
 
 12 
 
 21 
 
 9 
 
 32 
 
 2 
 10 
 
 31 
 
 330 
 
78 HENlilETTA CABACCIOLO, 
 
 It results, then, from the total of this census, that, 
 at the period of my entrance into the convent, there 
 were about 6720 individuals devoted to, or in prepa- 
 ration for, a life of inaction and celibacy. This 
 number may be thus divided : — 
 
 Priests and acolytes of the " Ordini Minori " ... 3507 
 
 Monks and novices (male) 1767 
 
 Nuns 1094 
 
 Scholars (female) 352 
 
 To which, if we add the " Sisters " scattered through- 
 out the different " conservatorii " and retreats of the 
 city, and the class of lay-sisters — a class celebate from 
 the necessity of their service, if not from vows, which 
 an approximative computation fixes at more than 
 2000 — we have a total of 9000, representing more 
 than 1 in 50 of the whole population of Naples, ab- 
 stracted by the Church from all social co-operation 
 and increase of the population ! One in fifty ! Woe 
 is me ! What epidemic, what deathly calamity, has 
 ever thinned a people in such fearful proportion and 
 with persisting intensity ! 
 
 Three cities alone of Italy— Rome, Naples, and 
 Palermo — contain 30,000 citizens of both sexes, 
 strangers to the past, enemies of the present, and 
 sterile to all the future of their country. 
 
SCENES AND CUSTOMS. 79 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 SCENES AND CUSTOMS. 
 
 Among the Benedictine monasteries of Naples that of 
 S. Gregorio Armeno was the one which at the period of 
 my recital reckoned the largest number of professed 
 nuns. In fact I found fifty-eight there — a few in 
 advanced age ; the greater portion young, or at least 
 not old ; and all, as I have already said, belonging to 
 the most conspicuous, if not always to the richest, 
 families of the ex-capital. 
 
 I had ample opportunity, however, from the first 
 day of my entrance into the convent, to observe that 
 the intellectual and moral condition of the sisters by 
 no means corresponded to the elevation of their birth. 
 Destined from the cradle, through the selfishness of 
 unnatural parents and brothers, to bury mind, heart, 
 and personal charms in this solitude, and immolate, 
 less to religion than to the avarice of relatives, every 
 affection, even to filial ; to vow a solemn and irrevo- 
 
80 HENRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 cable renunciation of the duties and the rights which 
 rivet the individual to family, to nation, to humanity, 
 without regard to social dispositions, or ardent 
 temperaments, or the inheritance of mobile feelings ; 
 brought up, through such motives, in the removal 
 from all teaching adapted to enlarge the sphere of 
 their ideas, to regulate and fertilize the heart and 
 feelings ; and with no earthly information beyond that 
 of legends, miracles, visions, and the phantasmagoria 
 of ascetics, which are found in perusal of the scanty 
 list of religious writers which the family " Index " 
 gives permission to open; and never finding them- 
 selves, whether it be under or beyond the paternal 
 roof, brought in contact with an individual who may 
 not be a close relative or her confessor; the nuns 
 of the most illustrious of all the orders — the Bene- 
 dictines — ^I repeat, are as much wanting in the 
 qualities which distinguish the well-born woman, as 
 they are destitute of those which, in other more 
 civilized society, render the religious character so 
 estimable. Let the historian and philosopher, who 
 cannot find in the faded pages of the chronicler, or 
 the depraved imagination of the sixteenth century, 
 materials capable of reconstructing to the life that 
 infamous era which inaugurates and shuts into Italy 
 the foreign domination, — let him enter, if he aan, into 
 a convent of women. He will find there, in spite of 
 the reforms of Trent, all livii^ and palpitating stillj 
 
SCENES AND CUSTOMS, 81 
 
 the morals of the age of the Borgias, the Medici, the 
 Farnesi, the traditions of the courts of the Colonna 
 and of Pietro de Toledo, the prejudices of the Norman 
 and Arragonese feudalisms, the brutalized ignorance 
 and superstitions of the populace at the epoch of the 
 auto-da-fe. What museum of antiquities can display 
 equal to a Neapolitan female convent — so full of life 
 and motion — the relics of the middle ages curiously 
 framed on the carved entablature of the era of 
 Charles V., the pictures of the ' Divina Commedia ' 
 and of the ' Decameron ' restored by the pencils of 
 Calderon de la Barca and Cervantes ? 
 
 The funeral pall of the cloister has preserved un- 
 injured this Necropolis, as the shower of "lapilli" 
 which fell from Vesuvius has preserved the papyri of 
 Herculaneum and the mummies of Pompeii. 
 
 My experience confirms the judgment of the 
 anonymous writer who, in the preface to a ' Chronique 
 Scandaleuse' of apocryphal memory,* traced the 
 history of the Neapolitan nunnery. Nor are the 
 manners of Naples so reformed that ■ these consi- 
 derations of an author of bygone times may not be 
 applicable to the present. 
 
 " At the period of the Norman domination," he 
 writes, "the cloistral laws were introduced in all 
 their rigour. The vows which some pious women 
 pronounced were temporary, and were renewed every 
 
 * Chronica del Con^euto di S. Aicangelo a Bejamo. 
 
 G 
 
82 HENRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 year, with the choice of selecting another state whict 
 might better suit them. These women then lived in 
 a kind of religious freedom, which united, as in the 
 case of the German Canonesses, the advantages of 
 society to the regulations of a pure and edifying life. 
 They bore the title of Oblate * (presented), lived at a 
 certain distance from the world, and could re-enter it 
 at any moment they felt desire to do so. The 
 absence of all contact with the world was no source 
 of irritation to either senses or imagination. Far 
 from shrinking at the idea of solitude, it caused 
 them to contemplate with pleasure the possibility 
 of returning to the world." 
 
 The interior of such a convent then was for such 
 reasons an abode of respectability and order, where 
 reigned that sweet serenity which accompanies 
 Christjianity, a poetical type of morality, and a quality 
 inestimable amongst women. In the absence of a 
 more tender sentiment, confidence and friendship 
 abode amongst these women, whose virtues would 
 have rejected every mundane passion. 
 
 An individual wishing to take up her residence in 
 this retreat was bound to maintain herself at her own 
 expense, until such time as, manifesting a desire to 
 adopt their mode of life, she came to the resolution 
 to inscribe herself amongst the Eeligieuses supported 
 by the establishment, when she received all that was 
 ♦ Offered or presented to Mary. 
 
SCENES AND CUSTOMS. 83 
 
 necessary to her maintenance. The direction of the 
 whole was intrusted to the most prudent and ex- 
 perienced of the ladies of the convent, the king con- 
 firming this free choice under the guarantee of his 
 Grand Almoner. 
 
 During the reign of the House of Anjou these 
 ladies were models of every virtue, joined to talents 
 the fruit of a liberal education ; but under the domi- 
 nation of Ferdinand the Catholic and Charles V., when 
 ajl privileges were bestowed upon hypocrisy and 
 the outward semblance of piety, a marked change 
 might have been traced in the connection which 
 the Keligieuses held with the world. Irregularities 
 augmented in proportion as the turbulence incident 
 to wars and the vices of delegated authority threw the 
 country into the anarchy of oligarchs. It was then 
 that the aU-powerful, invested with distinctions, and 
 resplendent with the effulgence of courts, were 
 enabled to seduce the pious daughters of the highest 
 lineage. These then ceded the field to the officers of 
 the army ; the brilliancy of arms bore the palm from 
 the magnificence and gallantry of the Court. In this 
 way the seductions of love succeeded by corruption 
 took possession of the minds of a crowd of youthful 
 beauty, whose hitherto pure and spotless hearts had 
 been inaccessible to aught but friendship and the 
 sentiments which virtue inspires. 
 
 It was then that the authority, not taking its 
 
"84 HENRIETTA CAEACCIOLO. 
 
 stand on constituted bases, but upon the privileges 
 and exemptions of the nobility, of the clergy, and 
 the Court of Rome, yielded to circumstances, and, 
 impotent to aid, saw a multitude of its subjects perish 
 before their eyes, victims of the reaction of so many 
 powers, or saw them elude the chief of these — that 
 which emanated from the throne. The Aulic Council 
 passed judgment on the individuals who belonged to 
 the Court and the army; the clerical body had its 
 own tribunal, which appealed to the Court of Rome, 
 and the monastic bodies depended directly from it. 
 The Archbishop of Naples and the Nuncio had their 
 particular prisons, where they incarcerated every male 
 or female who was subject to the Church, and often 
 hid among them those whom they wished to with- 
 draw from the protection of the Sovereign. Every 
 church, convent, feudal palace, enjoyed the privilege 
 of a sanctuary, and had in its pay the most notorious 
 bravos. A correspondence between Naples, Rome, 
 and Sicily, by the means of boats which navigated 
 the Tiber, carried on all the operations of the Govern- 
 ment, and managed all intrigues ; and perhaps it 
 would be possible to prove that without the interven- 
 tion of the Roman Curia the memorable Sicilian 
 Vespers would never have taken place. When these 
 dark agencies failed in giving the guilty a loophole 
 of escape, a Papal Bull would, in a hundred cases, 
 interfere to abstract him from the hands of justice^ 
 
SCENES AND CUSTOMS. 85 ' 
 
 and declare Mm enrolled in the body of the clergy. 
 In a hundred instances an inhuman father, eccentric 
 or avaricious, aided by the authority of the Nuncio 
 or the Bishop, could consign to a convent a daughter 
 whose state caused him embarrassment, or a wife 
 whose fidelity he suspected. When the honour of a 
 noble lady was compromised publicly, and when 
 her accomplice was not evident to her parents, she 
 and the man on whom suspicion fell were assassinated 
 and buried, imprisoned secretly, or, in fine, when it 
 was wished to give proof of mildness and moderation, 
 the damsel disappeared from the world and the man 
 went to pronounce his vows in a convent. Perhaps 
 the condition o^ the female was worse in those days 
 than it is at t' is day in Turkey. A mere shadow of 
 suspicion, a calumnious accusation, a hallucination 
 begot of jealousy, the false deposition of a rejected 
 lover, sufiSced to assemble in all haste a family council, 
 under the same mysterious circumstances in which 
 the Spanish Inquisition was wont to envelop its 
 tribunal, when it would thunder against the accused 
 that sentence which, according to the prejudices of 
 the period, could alone wipe off the often imaginary 
 stain from the family escutcheon in the public eyes. 
 Nor was there aught save blood to wash this blot 
 upon the honour of the name. In force of this bar- 
 barous code, the woman, if married, was stabbed or 
 strangled in her bed ; if marriageable, she was con- 
 
86 HlfiXRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 demned to the civil death of convent seclusion, or 
 taken off by poison. Nor could the whole broad 
 land afford escape to, the one who had fallen under 
 the suspicions of the domestic Inquisition. The hand 
 of the assassin, armed with traitorous steel, would have 
 pursued the unfortunate one to Kome, to Florence, 
 to Milan, even to the then freer soil of Venice ; 
 would have found the victim in the depths of the 
 most secluded convent, and have transfixed it at the 
 foot of the altar itself. And so imperious was this 
 thirst of arbitrary setting to rights, and so ineradicably 
 incorporated into the prejudices of the age, that more 
 than one Cardinal has been known to place the 
 dagger in the assassin's grasp — more than one Pope 
 has given free scope to the revenge of his nephews. 
 But let us return to what concerns myself. 
 What is that special distinction, the characteristic 
 trait which distinguishes the female from the male 
 monastery ? 
 
 It has remained unmarked by the world up to this 
 moment. I will reveal it. It is Confession. 
 
 In the year 1571 an order of the Cardinal Arch- 
 bishop Carafa imposed on all the convents within 
 his jurisdiction the exclusion of monks from their 
 confessionals, and thenceforth admitting, as con- 
 fessors, none but the secular priests. This change, 
 the chronicle of Sister Fulvia remarks, " displeased 
 all, as much from those fathers being in exceeding 
 
SCENES AND CUSTOMS. 87 
 
 good repute, as well as that we could not be per- 
 suaded that the secular priests should, in so short a 
 notice, make themselves acquainted with that which 
 was suited to the cloister-life." ' 
 
 The result of this separation was that on the sub- 
 ject of confession there was no longer conformity 
 of opinion and sentiment between the monk and 
 nun. 
 
 If this sacrament be a simple duty, and easy of 
 performance for the men, it is not so for the women. 
 The business of confession is their daily and nightly 
 solicitude ; occupies their whble thoughts, concen- 
 trates their feelings, and furnishes an inexhaustible 
 fund to their recreations. In process of time con- 
 fession becomes for them a sine qua non of their 
 existence — an occult science learnt in the silence of 
 their prison, in part through self-experience, in part 
 through mutual teaching — a kind of camorra which 
 has its adepts, its dumb regulations, its chiefs, and ^ts 
 penal code. Imagine any council suppressing the 
 supreme blessing of the confessional in a convent. 
 The nation need not concern itself in striking at 
 the future of monachism by special laws. As far 
 at least as nuns are concerned, convents would dis- 
 solve themselves by spontaneous act, in myjudgment, 
 and that within a period which might be reckoned 
 in weeks. 
 
 Prior to my entrance into the convent (it being 
 
88 HENRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 Christmas), my mother had enjoined me to confess 
 to my aunt Lucretia's confessor. He was an old 
 man of rough and surly manner, but at heart a 
 good Christian. Accustomed always to approach the 
 confessional with great reverence, I regarded the con- 
 fessor, not simply as man, but as a divine minister. 
 He came every Monday to me for this purpose. 
 
 I found the confessionals constructed like little 
 rooms, carefully curtained in every direction, and 
 furnished with a stool to sit at one's ease. 
 
 I asked why the nuns confessed seated — a pro- 
 ceeding so contrary to general usage. They replied 
 that it was impossible to remain kneeling for two or 
 three consecutive hours, that it was customaiy to 
 kneel at the moment of absolution only. 
 
 "What!" I said, in astonishment; "you require 
 two or three hours to tell the confessor that you 
 neither wished to commit nor have committed sins 
 in two or three days of cloister-life? What will 
 become, at that rate, of the poor worldlings much 
 more subject than you to temptation ?" 
 
 "We know," they said, "that it is customary with 
 worldlings to make confession of a few minutes' dura- 
 tion ; but we not only confess our venial sins (for in 
 the convent mortal sins are never committed), but 
 we wish our confessor, the confidant and faithful trust 
 of our own election, to direct us in our acts and 
 thoughts. It is to him we confide all that concerns 
 
SCENES AND CUSTOMS. 89 
 
 or affects us ; he is our only friend — the only channel 
 through which it is permitted us to give vent to our 
 innermost sentiments. Severed from all family ties, 
 ■vre find in him paternal affection, the mother's ten- 
 derness, the affections of sister and brother. Whilst 
 separated from the world, we find in the intimacy 
 which binds us so cordially together the personifica- 
 tion of a universe, in recompense for our solitude. 
 You yourself, in a little while, especially if you can 
 be induced to give up that old confessor you have 
 got, and select a young one, will pass hours in the 
 confessional." 
 
 These words left an unpleasant impression on me, 
 though at the time I did not fully comprehend the 
 intention conveyed in them. 
 
 When the father arrived, I made a brief confession 
 of my faults. 
 
 He informed me that in the convent it was im- 
 perative to take the sacrament almost every day. 
 I begged that I might be dispensed ; because I 
 thought I could not do so with sufficient devotion 
 without preceding it by confession. 
 
 He was satisfied that I should take it twice a 
 week, as a commencement. I entered the Com- 
 munion, and my aunt Lucretia's maid rang a bell, to 
 summon the priest with the pyx. He was a man of 
 fifty years of age, stout, red-faced, with a type of 
 countenance as vulgar as it was repulsive. ^ 
 
90 HESKIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 I approached the aperture to receive the com- 
 munion, and (as is customary) closed my eyes in 
 the act ; when the wafer was placed on my tongue, 
 and I was about to withdraw it, I felt my cheek 
 caressed. I opened my eyes suddenly; the priest 
 had withdrawn his hand. I imagined at the mo- 
 ment it might have been done accidentally, and did 
 not wish to think further of it. 
 
 On the next occasion when I was to receive, I had 
 forgotten all about this circumstance, and, as usual, 
 closed my eyes on receiving the particle. This time 
 I felt my chin gently pressed ; and, on opening my 
 eyes, I saw the priest, with jocund expression, fixing 
 his look intently on them. 
 
 There was no longer any doubt ; the caress of the 
 first time, and the pressure of the second, could not 
 be the result of accident. 
 
 Woman, as a daughter of Eve, is more curious 
 than the opposite sex. I determined to place myself 
 in such a position as to be able to observe if this 
 libertine acted thus with the nuns. I did so, and 
 satisfied myself that the very old and decrepit alone 
 were exempt from the attention ; all the others per- 
 mitted him to do as he pleased. 
 
 " Is this the reverence," I said to myself, " which 
 priests and nuns have for the Holy Eucharist ? Do 
 these people quit the world to receive lessons of such 
 morality as this ? " 
 
SCENES AND CUSTOMS. 91 
 
 In the mean time the sphere of my isolation 
 became more contracted every day. My persistence 
 in saying that I would not become a nun was a source 
 of irritation to all the sisters. Unanimously they 
 laid the blame on the confessor, who they insisted did 
 not know how to persuade me to embrace the life of 
 the cloister. 
 
 " No, he is not suited for you," they repeated ; 
 " and the evident proof of his incapacity is the short 
 period he remains in the confessional. He listens 
 and does not speak ; without spontaneous activity, he 
 remains in a state of ujere passive attention. Has 
 he, for example, explained ■ to you the difference 
 between the life of worldlings, the greater portion of 
 whom plunge headlong into eternal darkness, and 
 that of the religieuses, nearly all of whom are saved ? " 
 
 The nuns would not rest ; an exhortation from this 
 one, a catechizing from the other, all drawing their 
 arguments from the most besotted superstitions, and 
 through the most barbarous vernacular, essayed to 
 exorcise the malignant spirit which inspired me with 
 such aversion for their society. 
 
 One of these, whose name was Maddalena, the 
 most fanatical of them, would come every evening 
 into the room of my aunt Lucretia, intent, at all cost, 
 on my conversion. When she saw that the sophis- 
 tries of her logic were fruitless, she said at last to 
 me, — 
 
92 HENRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 " Will you do me a favour ? ' 
 
 " Speak ! " I replied. 
 
 " I expect my confessor to-morrow ; he is a Canon 
 of the Church, and possesses the learning of St. 
 Thomas Aquinas, and the virtues of St. Francis 
 Caracciolo, your ancestor ; will you lay before him 
 your reasons for abhorring the monastic state, and 
 hear his answers ? " 
 
 Knowing that I had no intention of yielding, she 
 continued, "Do you know that God, having placed 
 this opportunity of entering the cloister and sepa- 
 rating yourself from the world before you, has given 
 you a proof of His great goodness, and which He 
 refuses to so many ? Some day or another He will 
 bring you to a heavy reckoning for thus contemning 
 His immense favour. On the other hand, if you seek 
 counsel of the servants of God " (these servants were 
 the priests and nuns), "and afterwards your opinions 
 remain unchanged, you will have purged your mind 
 of any scruples, and He cannot reproach you for any 
 negligence." 
 
 These reasons, entirely new to me, and reiterated 
 each night with increasing insistance and loquacity ; 
 the oppressive atmosphere of the convent ; my youth, 
 joined to my complete ignorance of priestly and 
 monkish imposture; in fine, the education I had 
 received, which rendered me pliable to superiors and 
 courteous to all, made me give in to her instances. 
 
SCENES ASD CUSTOMS. 93 
 
 On the following morning Maddalena, radiant with 
 exultation, conducted me to her learned reverend. 
 The satisfaction and solicitude of this nun much reas- 
 sured me. " If," I said to myself, " there should be 
 anything equivocal in her relation with the priest, 
 would she make me a participator in her happiness 
 with such frankness ? " 
 
 " Are you not curious to prove the efficacy of a 
 genuine confession ? " she asked me, some moments 
 previous to my introduction. 
 
 " Most curious," I rejoined. 
 
 My position, in fact, resembled that of one buried 
 alive, who, roused from his trance, moves about the 
 dark catacomb with outstretched hands in vain hope 
 of an issue. 
 
 The Canon was a man of forty years of age, pos- 
 sessing a countenance of great expression and mobi- 
 lity of feature. If he was not a Jesuit, no one was 
 more worthy to be one. After many complimentary 
 phrases and salutations, he inquired, in courteous ex- 
 pressions, my name and age, and several similar 
 details. Then crossing one leg over the other, and 
 slowly rubbing his hands together, he said, " I will 
 suppose, Signorina, that it is your intention to take 
 the veil." 
 
 " Not so, your Reverence." 
 "And why?" 
 
 " Because the cloister inspires me with unutterable 
 repugnance." 
 
94 HENRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 " In due time you will so habituate yourself to this 
 sweet imprisonment as to be unable to tear yourself 
 from it. Did you not then enter of your o\Yn. free will ? " 
 
 " No ; I was forced by my mother." 
 
 " Ah ! forced by mamma ! " • (A short pause, during 
 which he appeared immersed in profound meditation.) 
 " Tell me, Signorina, have you ever been in love ? " 
 
 " Twice." 
 
 " What did you look for on these occasions ? " 
 
 " To marry the person I loved." 
 
 " Have you ever sent or received letters from your 
 lovers ? " 
 
 "Never" (I remembered the note written by 
 Domenico). 
 
 " What termination had these loves ? " 
 
 " I was forsaken by those I loved." 
 
 " And your mother " 
 
 " Irritated with me for keeping my faith with my 
 second lover." 
 
 " You see, my daughter," he cried, " the 
 difference which lies between the earthly and 
 the heavenly spouse ; those abandoned you whilst 
 you loved them, this one seeks you whilst you care 
 not for him ; seeks you faithfully and perseveringly, 
 whilst you persist in rejecting him. The first have 
 made a plaything of your existence, embittered the 
 fresh and pure cup of your youth ; the second wishes 
 to heap on you unutterable joys ; he opens the doors 
 
SCENES AND CUSTOMS. 95 
 
 of his house to you, and would unite you with his 
 beloved brides ; he opens his arms to you, and would 
 make you forget the grief which men have caused you." 
 
 He continued for a considerable time in this strain 
 — little edifying to me ; at last I broke in. 
 
 " Is it true, or not," I said, " that man has been 
 created for mankind ? If as you say the family of 
 Christ was this limited community, why then was the 
 Son of God crucified for the salvation of the whole 
 human race ? It has been said that to take delight in 
 solitude, in isolation, one must be an angel or a beast. 
 Quh solitudinem delectatur aut Beus aut fera est. 
 Now, your Reverence, I am neither divine, nor yet 
 am I of the wild beasts. I love the world, and take 
 delight in the companionship of my fellow-beings. 
 Nor do I believe that you yourself hold human com- 
 panionship in abhorrence ; if such were the case, 
 would you not have become a monk confessor at 
 least, if not an anchorite of the Thebaid." 
 
 "To these observations," replied the Canon, rising 
 and seizing his hat, " I will give you an answer 
 at our next meeting. You promise me to return 
 again ? " 
 
 I was obliged to acquiesce ; besides, to say the 
 truth, I was curious to hear the persuasive eloquence 
 of the much-lauded Canon. 
 
 Two days later he sent for me to communicate to 
 me that the Holy Symbol had inspired his prayers 
 
96 HENRIETTA CAKACCIOLO. 
 
 that he alone should confess me, and intimated that 
 I should address a letter for that purpose to my old 
 confessor, thanking him for the charity (in the mo- 
 nastic glossary doing a charity means confessing), and 
 announcing to him that I was provided with another 
 confessor. 
 
 I was grieved at his exacting this, and showed 
 great disinclination to comply with it ; but the Canon, 
 declaring that the virtue most dear to God was that 
 of obedience to the Cross, forbade me to leave the 
 room until I had promised to indite this letter as 
 soon as I returned to my room. The letter was 
 written, not without much grief on my part. 
 
 Now, if the change of confessor vexed me, it was 
 the occasion of still more heartache to Sister Madda- 
 lena, who, though she was most anxious to display 
 the portentous eloquence of her confessor, was, on the 
 other hand, far from imagining that the act of my 
 conversion would have required a second conference. 
 I met her in the afternoon ; on seeing me she became 
 perfectly livid, and, muttering I know not what, un- 
 courteously turned on her heel and hurried away. 
 
 " Maddalena is very singular ! " said one of the 
 nuns to me. " She would insist on your seeing her 
 confessor whether you wished or not, and now she is 
 wUd with jealousy." 
 
 " Jealousy ! " I cried, unable to restrain my laugh- 
 ter ; "jealousy of whom ? " 
 
SCENES AND CUSTOMS. 97 
 
 " The Canon, it seems, manifests less affection for 
 her than for you ; moreover, you have dismissed your 
 old confessor to become his penitent." 
 
 I was stupified. As I could not recall the letter 
 I had ^yritten to the old priest, I despatched one 
 immediately to the Canon, the purport of which was 
 that as I did not wish to create enemies for myself in 
 the convent, I would dispense with his services and 
 provide myself with another confessor. 
 
 After the lapse of an hour I heard the portress's 
 bell repeat six strokes, the number indicating my 
 summons. 
 
 I found the Canon in the parlour. 
 
 " You have sent me my dismissal," he cried, 
 laughing. 
 
 " Yes ! " I replied. " I have no wish to be annoyed 
 for these few remaining days which I must pass here ; 
 and as I am not uncivil to any one, so I do not choose 
 to give any one the right to treat me with imper- 
 tinence." 
 
 " The fact is," rejoined he, still laughing, " I can 
 take no notice of your dismissal ; but, on the con- 
 trary, in order to tranquillize you, I will announce to 
 Maddalena this very day that I do not confess her 
 any longer ; in this way she need have no motive for 
 inquiring whether I feel a liking for you or not. 
 Mine be the sacred duty to bring to the fold the lamb 
 
98 HENRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 which has strayed and which God has consigned to 
 my care. I am not permitted to abandon you." 
 
 " I cannot understand," I replied, with some seri- 
 ousness, "how jealousy can insinuate itself into the 
 sacrament of confession, nor is it for me to inquire 
 the cause of such unqualifiable association, I can 
 only tell you, if you leave Maddalena you bring on 
 me a more determined persecution. Grant me this 
 favour ; retain her and free me. I declare to you 
 that I will not enter the confessional whilst you are 
 there." 
 
 " In that case," he rejoined, laying aside his mer- 
 riment, " I must employ another expedient." 
 
 He then left me, in doubt as to what he intended 
 o do. 
 
 I had predetermined that in this I would not 
 yield a step ; for that reason I bad requested my 
 aunt, the Abbess, to seek me another confessor, and 
 under the condition that he was to be both an old 
 man and without a second penitent within the 
 convent. 
 
 My aunt promised this. She was much grieved 
 to see me placed in this embarrassing position, and 
 without any fault of my own. 
 
 It was about three o'clock when I heard a great 
 uproar in the corridor. I went to the window and 
 saw Maddalena crying and holding a folded paper in 
 
SCKKES AKD CUSTOMS. 9'9 
 
 her hand, surrounded also Ly a circle of excited nuns 
 and lay sisters, all seemingly speaking at once. 
 
 An affair of confession is for nuns what an affair of 
 State is for a ministry — often a casus belli. 
 
 I comprehended the whole matter, and groaned 
 over the hour in which they had first brought me 
 into that holy Pandemonium. 
 
 The uproar went on increasing; the whole sister- 
 hood was out. Among the confused cries of revolt, 
 there was but one single word distinguishable — the 
 word "Canon!" 
 
 I drew back from the window in such a manner as 
 to see without being seen. 
 
 In the mean time the old Abbess had come up to 
 the scene of confusion, leaning upon one of the pupils, 
 and was endeavouring to appease Maddalena, pro- 
 mising that her niece should no longer confess to 
 the Canon — that she herself would find a substitute 
 for me. 
 
 "Will you give me your word of it?" cried Mad- 
 dalena, like one possessed ; whilst the seventy mouths 
 which gaped around ;svere hushed in expectancy. 
 
 " I pledge myself to it," rejoined the Abbess. 
 
 " That is right ! — that is right ! " exclaimed the 
 nuns in chorus. " It would have been intolerable to 
 have seen him in the confessional with another." 
 Congratulating Maddalena on the recovery of her 
 
 H 2 
 
100 HENRIETTA CABACCIOLO. 
 
 rights, they cried, " Now be happy again ; you hare 
 had justice done you." 
 
 From that singular scene, which can never be 
 effaced from my memory, I began to feel convinced 
 .that the solicitude of penitents for their confessors, 
 and of the confessor for his penitent, had its exist- 
 ence in a certain sentiment not too conformable to 
 the evangelical precept, "Love thy neighbour as 
 thyself." 
 
 But the scene was destined not to terminate there. 
 It was written that the important subject of my 
 confession was to find its solution with the eminent 
 authorities of the Holy Mother Church. 
 
 On the following morning I was again summoned 
 to the parlour : this time it was Monsignore the 
 Vicar. What could he want with me ? 
 
 He wanted to tell me that the Canon had had an 
 interview with him — had related the matter between 
 Maddalena and myself to him, and that he, in the 
 quality of head of the Metropolitan, had decided that 
 I, and not Maddalena, should remain the penitent of 
 the Canon. 
 
 It only required the sanction of the Pope to com- 
 plete the comedy. 
 
 Neither my protests nor my tears of vexation 
 availed. My aunt reproved me, saying that the 
 Vicar I must obey without contradiction. 
 
SCEXES AND CUSTOMS. 101 
 
 I returned to my room, and wrote a long letter to 
 my mother, narrating everything, and reminding her 
 that the second month of my imprisonment was 
 about to expire, and that I did not wish to remain 
 longer in the convent 
 
 It would be too tedious to recount what I endured 
 from this jealousy ; my persecutions terminated only 
 when Maddalena had found another confessor, and 
 bad forgotten the first. 
 
 The frenetical infatuation which nuns entertain for 
 priests and monks passes all credibility. The liberty 
 which they enjoy of seeing and writing to the 
 object of their adoration makes the cloister a wel- 
 come abode to them. They are unhappy only when 
 in the case of illness — or before taking the veil, if 
 they should pass some months with their families — as 
 neither father nor mother nor brother would be 
 likely to permit a young girl to pass several hours of 
 the day alone with a priest or monk, and to write 
 incessantly to him. This is a liberty which they 
 enjoy in the convent only. 
 
 Many are the hours which the cloister Heloise 
 spends in the confessional in sweet communion with 
 her frocked Abelard. 'Tis only pity that they do not 
 understand a syllable of Latin ! 
 
 Some, whose confessor is old, have superadded 
 a spiritual director, with whom they pass several 
 hours in the parlour. When not satisfied with this. 
 
102 HENKIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 they find means in alleging illness, feigned or real, 
 to have an interview tete-a-Ute with them in their 
 own rooms. There are nuns who without the inter- 
 vention of the confessor dare not even make out the 
 list of their washing. 
 
 One nun received hers three times a day. In the 
 forenoon he brought her the components of her 
 dinner ; later he would come to say mass in the 
 church, when she served him with coffee and biscuits ; 
 and again in the afternoon, at which visit he remained 
 until a late hour, in order that he might (so she said) 
 give her an account of what he had laid out for her 
 in the morning. Not satisfied with . this, they would 
 exchange notes twice in the intervals of these visits. 
 
 Another nun had conceived an affection for a priest 
 from the period at which he had served in the church 
 as acolyte. Arrived at the priesthood, he was made 
 sacristan ; but, accused by his fellow priests of his 
 intimacy with the nun, he was prohibited by his 
 superiors from even passing the street where the 
 nunnery stood. For sixteen years she remained con- 
 stant to him, during which period they corresponded 
 every day, sent each other costly presents, and con- 
 trived to see each other from time to time clandes- 
 tinely in the parlour. Finally, the Superior being 
 changed, the nun, though now arrived at a mature 
 age, procured him as her confessor. For this favour 
 she made many presents to images, offered up candles 
 
SCENES AND CUSTOMS. 103 
 
 and flowers, gave sweetmeats to all the sisterhood, 
 and, as on the occasion of a marriage, received con- 
 gratulations, not even refusing the ovation of a little 
 complimentary madrigal. Finally, she had con- 
 structed, at her own expense, a special confessional, 
 so that she might command it for her spiritual 
 exercises at any hour of the day. 
 
 A personage of high position sought an interview 
 of the Abbess one morning, for the purpose of putting 
 into her hands a letter which he himself had found 
 in the street. That epistle, addressed by one of the 
 Spouses of Christ to her priest, had been dropped by 
 the servant. The very material language used in it 
 had shocked the conscience of the gentleman — a 
 language which the commonest courtezan would have 
 shrunk from expressing herself in. 
 
 The confessors of the " Community " are chosen 
 triennially by the Superiors for the service of those 
 nuns and lay sisters who may not have any particular 
 one, as being arrived at an age unsuited to amorous 
 intrigues. Now, one of these, prior to his nomina- 
 tion, had a young penitent in the convent. Every 
 time he came to visit a dying sister, and for that 
 purpose passed the night in the convent, the nun 
 would climb over the balustrade which separated 
 hers from the priest's room, and thus betook herself 
 to the master and director of her soul. 
 
 Another, during the delirium of a typhus fever 
 
104 HEXRIETTA CAEACCIOLO. 
 
 from whicli she was suffering, never ceased from imi- 
 tating the action of sending kisses to the confessor 
 as he sat at her bed-side. He, confounded with 
 shame at this in the presence of others, held up 
 towards the sick woman a crucifix, and, in a com- 
 miserating tone, exclaimed, " Poor thing ! she is 
 kissing her spouse." 
 
 A young pupil, as pure in life as she was beautiful 
 in person and noble in descent, told me, under a 
 promise of secrecy, that she had received from her 
 confessor in the confessional a most interesting book, 
 as she called it, because it related to the monastic 
 state. I expressed a desiie to see it, which she, 
 taking the precaution first to secure her room door, 
 willingly acceded to. It was the ' Nun ' of Diderot, 
 a book, as many know, full of the most revolting 
 improprieties, and of all books the most pernicious to 
 the mind of the innocent. Having learned from the 
 girl of what the work treated, I begged of her to 
 discontinue its perusal, and restore forthwith to its 
 owner this ill-favoured loan. "What was my surprise, 
 however, on hearing this young creature confess that 
 this style of reading was by no means new to her ; 
 that, through the favour of her confessor, she had 
 already got through more than once another work of 
 the most immoral tendency — the ' Chronicle of the 
 Monastery of St. Arcangelo a Bajano' — a book pro- 
 liibited by the Bourbon police ! 
 
SCENES AND CUSTOMS. 105 
 
 I myself received a letter from a monk, in which 
 he announced impertinently to me that he had no 
 sooner beheld me than he had entertained the sweet 
 hope to become my confessor; and an exquisite of 
 the first water, a fop of scents and euphuism, could 
 not have employed a phraseology of more melodra- 
 matic style to ask whether he was to hope or despair. 
 
 A priest, the most insupportable of the class, from 
 his obstinate assiduity, sought to make me love him 
 at all cost. There was not an image which profane 
 poesy could lend him, nor a sophism he could borrow 
 from rhetoric, nor wily interpretation he could give 
 to the Word of God, which he did not employ in the 
 endeavour to convert me to his wishes. I would give 
 a succinct specimen of his logic. 
 
 " My fair daughter ! " he said to me one day, " do 
 you know what God really is?" 
 
 " He is the Creator of the universe," I answered 
 drily. 
 
 "No, no, no, no! that is not enough," replied 
 he, laughing at my simplicity. " God is love — but 
 abstract love, which receives its incarnation in the 
 sympathy of two hearts which idolize each other. 
 You cannot, nor should you, love God, in the abstract 
 existence alone. You should love him likewise in 
 his incarnation — or in the exclusive love of a man 
 who adores you — quod Deus est amor . ... nee colitur 
 nisi amando." 
 
106 HENRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 " Then, according to that," I interposed, " a 
 woman who adores her lover is adoring the Deity 
 himself?" 
 
 "Assuredly!" reiterated the padre over and over 
 again, taking courage from my conclusion, and 
 chuckling at the success of his catechism. 
 
 "In that case," I rejoined quickly, "I prefer for a 
 lover a worldling, rather than a priest." 
 
 " May God keep you, my daughter ! may God 
 deliver you from such a snare ! " cried my interlocu- 
 tor, with an expression of horror. " Love a worldling, 
 one of the profane, the impious, the unbelieving ! 
 Why ! you would go unconditionally to hell ! The 
 love of a priest is a sacred love ; that of the profane 
 is but a reproach and a shame. The trust you should 
 repose in the priest is the same as that which you 
 bestow on the Holy Church ; that of the worldling is 
 lying and false, like all worldly vanities. The priest 
 purifies his affections daily by his communion with 
 the Holy Substance ; the man of the world befouls 
 his love (if indeed he feels love) daily and nightly in 
 the miry gutter of the highway." 
 
 " But my heart, as well as my conscience, is 
 repugnant to the priest." 
 
 " Well, if you will not love me because I am your 
 confessor, I can take away your scruples. We will 
 premise all our affectionate demonstrations with the 
 name of Jesus Christ : in this way our love will be 
 
SCENES AND CUSTOMS. 107 
 
 an offering most acceptable to the Lord, and will 
 ascend a grateful odour up to Heaven, as the smoke 
 of incense in the sanctuary. Say to me, for example, 
 ' I love you in Jesus Christ ; this night I dreamt 
 of you in Jesus Christ ;' thus you will have your 
 conscience tranquillized, since in so doing you sanctify 
 any transport whatever." 
 
 Several circumstances, only hurriedly alluded to 
 here, obliged me to be frequently in the society of 
 this priest, whose name I suppress. 
 
 Having inquired of a monk, respectable both from 
 his age and the morality of his life, what was meant 
 by this prefixing the name of Christ to amorous 
 apostrophes, — 
 
 " A horrible sect," he replied, " and unfortunately 
 too widely spread, abusing the name of Christ, give 
 thus a licence to the most nefarious wickedness," 
 
108 HENRIETTA CABACCTOLO. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE BELL. 
 
 On the 21st of March, the day* dedicated to St. Bene- 
 dict, I assumed the dress of a pupil. 
 
 The nuns were in no haste to make me put on 
 this dress sooner, as I was in mourning for my 
 father. The ceremony was most simple. Depositing 
 the tunic on a tray, they sent it to the church, to be 
 placed upon the altar of St. Benedict. 
 
 The Canon above cited said mass, blessed the gar- 
 ment, and I put it on. It was made of a common 
 woollen stuflf, with light sleeves down to the wrist, 
 and having a little scapulary attached to it ; a white 
 cotton apron, and handkerchief of the same material 
 round the neck, completed the dress. 
 
 The hair was drawn plainly over the ears, and 
 fastened with a comb : this mode of wearing it, and 
 the heavy shoes, were the most irksome things in the 
 costume. 
 
THE BELL. 1C9 
 
 The Canon ascended to the parlour after the mass, 
 to see me in this new costume, and to make me his 
 compliments. 
 
 The persuasions of the confessor had no effect in 
 causing me to renounce the wish of get.tlng out. 
 Nor did his assiduity in visiting me three or four 
 times a week inspire me with more attachment to 
 the convent life. 
 
 I wrote incessantly to my mother, to remind her of 
 her promise. In March she wrote me word that one 
 of her children was ill ; in April she said, that as my 
 aunt Lucretia had just died, it would be unseemly to 
 leave the other aunt Abbess so soon ; in May she 
 neglected to write ; and finally, in June I fell ill. A 
 slow fever had begun to waste me. 
 
 General Saluzzi, Josephine, and one of my elder 
 sisters, who was at that time in Naples, in some 
 resentment at my mother's negligence, wrote to her. 
 She wrote back, that she herself could not come to 
 fetch me, but that an intimate friend of hers, a lady 
 of Messina, who was at that time in Naples, and 
 about to return home, would take charge of me, and 
 that she would receive me at Messina. 
 
 I gave myself up to unbounded joy on the receipt 
 
 of this. I should return to Reggio. I should be 
 
 restored to liberty. I should see Domenico again. 
 
 I called to memory the sigh of Alighieri : 
 
 " Libeiia vo oercando oh 'e si cara 
 Como sa chi per lei vita rifiuta." 
 
110 HENRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 Wy confessor wished to demonstrate to me ttat this 
 feeling of satisfaction was not less than sinful ; the 
 nuns pronounced me ungrateful to God, to them- 
 selves, an4 to San Benedetto ; and for the whole 
 month during which the lady was still detained in 
 Naples, they continued to assail me with one absurd 
 story after another of persons who had been eternally 
 lost because they would not listen to the voice of 
 God, who called them to the Cloister ; such as, for 
 example, that of the " Bambino " of wood, which had 
 remained with the foot raised, in the very act in 
 which it had administered a parting kick to M. C., a 
 girl who had once left the convent ; how the statue 
 of St. Benedict had given certain knocks on the 
 pavement of his niche ; of apparitions of souls in 
 purgatory ; of witches and vampires, demons and 
 demoniacs, — things equally absiu-d as new to me. 
 Tormented daily by similar twaddle, more suited to 
 the " good old times " of the crusades than our own, 
 and not less adapted to demoralise the mind than 
 they were to debase the conscience and heart, I 
 prayed to Heaven to preserve me my poor reason. 
 
 The day of my deliverance approached. 
 
 It had been arranged by my mother that, on' my 
 quitting the convent, I should go to my sister's house, 
 there to await the lady who was to escort me. 
 
 The night which preceded this day of liberty had 
 been too full of emotion for me to sleep, and I passed 
 
THE BELL. Ill 
 
 the first hours of it in -wakefulness. Then came on a 
 sleep disturbed by the fantastical discourse of the 
 priests and nuns — by dreams of spectres, phantoms, 
 horrible demons, saints, relics, &c. 
 
 I was thus betwixt sleep and waking when I 
 fancied I head the tinkle of a small bell close to my 
 head. I awoke completely — opened my eyes and 
 listened — profound silence was around me. 
 
 This silence, and the state of agitation caused by 
 my dreams, banished sleep altogether. 
 
 As soon as daybreak appeared, I got up and 
 dressed myself; shortly after which one of the 
 sisters entered my room. Describing to her the state 
 of discomfort I had passed the night in, I related also 
 the singular hallucination of the bell. 
 
 With an exclamation of extatic rapture, and hastily 
 crossing herself, she bounded out into the corridor, 
 yelling at the extent of her voice, " A miracle ! a 
 miracle ! " 
 
 "Heyday! what miracle? who has worked any 
 miracle?" I exclaimed, as I followed her precipitate 
 and unaccountable action. 
 
 "Can you ask? Why, St. Benedict's bell!— he 
 has called you ! " 
 
 In five minutes afterwards the whole convent was 
 topsy-turvy. The niins, the pupils, the lay sisters, 
 could talk of nothing else. They had even begun to 
 discuss the propriety of a mass to perpetuate the 
 memory of this miracle in the annals of the convent. ^ 
 
112 HENRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 Notwithstanding the miraculous bell, I held my 
 ground. When the time of my departure arrived, I 
 embraced my old aunt, as I shed tears at this sepa- 
 ration from her, and in a state of perfect happiness 
 passed over the convent threshold. My first visit was 
 to Josephine, whose illness had prevented me seeing 
 her for a long time. I then proceeded to the house 
 of my other sister, where I was to remain for ten 
 days. It was written, however, that my liberty was 
 to be but of short duration. A few days had passed 
 when two letters from Reggio were consigned to me. 
 They were from my two sisters who were married 
 there, and who most urgently counselled me to return 
 again to the convent. The reasons they alleged for 
 such advice were most painful My mother was about 
 to be married again. Domenico, having forgotten 
 me, and insensible to my misfortunes, had attached 
 himself to another lady ; and I ran the risk of pass- 
 ing from a convent of the capital into a provincial 
 one. 
 
 These ill-omened tidings completely overthrew me. 
 The whole and heavy weight of my orphaned con- 
 dition was discharged at once on me. 
 
 After long reflection upon the critical position this 
 news left me in, I came to the resolution, not without 
 considerable reluctance and shame at being a burthen 
 to others, to ask my brother-in-law to allow me to 
 remain in his house until God gave me some other 
 means of life. 
 
THE BELL. 113 
 
 ' He generously gave me a home. 
 
 When the lady who was to fetch me came, I in- 
 formed her of my decision, and that I no longer 
 desired to leave. She returned alone. 
 
 In another week a letter came from my mother. 
 In terms of indignation and anger she protested she 
 would no longer stand my disobedience. She had 
 gone to Messina to receive me, and, not finding me, 
 nothing could exceed her wrath. This was not 
 enough. 
 
 My brother-in-law in two days after this received 
 a summons from the Minister of Police, who inti- 
 mated to him that he must send me to my mother, in 
 obedience to her command. 
 
 " My dear sister-in-law," said this worthy man, 
 " I have offered you the hospitality of my house, and 
 would with pleasure still continue to do so, if in so 
 doing I were not giving offence to your mother ; but 
 now, from the turn which matters are taking, I must 
 frankly tell you I do not wish to offend my mother- 
 in-law." 
 
 It' was thus plainly intimated to me that I must 
 leave. 
 
 What was I to do? Where was I to go? — to 
 whom was I to apply ? 
 
 I found myself in a terrible dilemma — a prison on 
 my right, another on my left — on every side desertion 
 and despair. 
 
114 HENRIETTA CABACCIOLO. 
 
 " My God ! " was my internal cry, whilst I could 
 not restrain my tears, " what is to become of me 1 — 
 without resources, without all support — powerless. 
 If a cruel destiny turns everything against me, is 
 there not at least some humane law which will 
 befriend me?" 
 
 There was a ring at the door. It was an old friend 
 of the family, bowed under the weight of seventy 
 years. When he heard what had taken place, this 
 good old man exhorted me to return to the convent, 
 until, as he said, the storm had blown over — that 
 later an attempt would be made to bring about a 
 reconciliation with my mother. My sister and my 
 brother-in-law, and other friends of the family, joined 
 likewise in this opinion ; nor, to say the truth, could 
 I see, myself, any other issue to escape from despair : 
 I had no other resource. 
 
 Not knowing therefore to what more efficacious 
 saint to turn, as the saying is, I was taken back to 
 the cor vent in the afternoon. Having called my 
 aunt aside, I told her it was my wish to return there 
 again for a few more months, to which she replied 
 that it was necessary to consult the disposition of the 
 sisters upon that resolution. Sliortly after a con- 
 vocation was held in the parlour, and, having heard 
 my request from the mouth of the abbess, they 
 replied that they would willingly receive me back 
 into the establishment, if I would declare at that mo- 
 
THE BELL. 115 
 
 ment, I re-entered not provisionally, but to take the 
 veil — otherwise, they would be constrained to refuse. 
 What horrible alternative ! 
 
 My sister, seeing my perplexity and distress, and 
 my hesitation in replying, prompted me in an under- 
 tone to say Yes, for form sake, as, having once given 
 me admittance, they could not turn me out. 
 
 I was persuaded. I believed I could do this with 
 impunity, and I answered in hardly audible words, 
 that I returned to become a nun. 
 
 "Say it aloud!" repeated the abbess; "are you 
 finally decided on taking the vows?" 
 
 My heart beat violently ; my brain was whirling 
 round, and I thought I should have swooned. I 
 begged for a seat, and wiped the cold perspiration 
 which stood on my forehead, and with the voice of 
 one expiring, I answered — 
 
 "Yes!" 
 
 The die was thrown !— Fatal " Yes !" 
 
 The affirmative was hardly pronounced, when a 
 chorus of acclamations and festive cries arose. The 
 sisters in common accord broke out in asseverations 
 that my conversion was effected by the bell of St. 
 Benedict, which I myself had acknowledged to have 
 heard on the night previous to my leaving the con- 
 vent, and a bevy of lay sisters was forthwith de- 
 spatched to the belfry to ring a festive peal. 
 
 The neighbours, hearing the bells ring at an 
 
 I 2 
 
116 HENRIETTA CAEACCIOI.O. 
 
 unusual hour, sent to inquire what had occurred. 
 The nuns sent answer that the niece of the abbess 
 had, through inspiration from above, declared she 
 would become a nun. 
 
 Confused, overwhelmed by these unexpected com- 
 binations, my senses began to wander. I trembled 
 like an autumn leaf. 
 
 It was fixed that I was to be shut up on the day 
 following. I returned to my sister's house in a state 
 of the most profound dejection. She herself was 
 much distressed at the turn which (without her in- 
 tending it) matters had taken. 
 
 The ill-omened sound of the bell echoed in my 
 ears all that night ; a thousand times I repented me 
 of having uttered that fatal Yes, and accused myself 
 of weakness. 
 
 Woe to those dragged along by inexorable fate! 
 On the following day I presented myself at the con- 
 vent, at the door of which many of my friends were 
 stationed to receive me. 
 
 I was haUed with a fresh festive peal, and an ex- 
 plosion of " mortaletti," * a ceremony which was sure 
 to collect an immense crowd. Nothing was spoken 
 of during that day but the miraculous bell and my 
 vows. The Canon went about radiant with joy ; the 
 
 * Short, thick tubes of iron, eaoli containing a strong charge of 
 powder, and exploded in file on Neapolitan church featiTities. — 
 Translator'i Note. 
 
THE BELL. 117 
 
 sisters all in a state of exultation — a coming and 
 going without cessation of priests and confessors in the 
 church. The Rector and Cardinal Caracciolo himself 
 came to compliment me on my decision ; and in the 
 afternoon my aunt gave a sumptuous entertainment 
 of ices and cakes to the Community. In fine, to 
 secure me in the meshes in which I had become 
 entangled, so as to render it impossible for me to 
 free myself, the priests and sisters trumpeted the 
 miracle of St. Benedict and the act of my conversion 
 with all possible publicity. 
 
 To relieve the solitary sufferings which were await- 
 ing me, I had provided myself with some volumes, 
 which I hid at the bottom of my trunk. Among 
 these was a Bible, the ' Confessions ' of St. Augustine, 
 and the ' Manual ' of Epictetus. I had also searched 
 for the ' Consolations ' of Boetius, but could not 
 succeed in finding it. But a friendly hand put me 
 in possession of one especially adapted to my situa- 
 tion — that of Zimmermann on Solitude. I promised 
 myself a new fountain of comfort, and thought the 
 time long until I should be able to read it. 
 
 After the entertainment of ices was over, and the 
 nuns had retired, bidding good night to my aunt, 
 I hastened to draw from my trunk the longed-for 
 volume. With what palpitating avidity I devoured 
 the first pages by the light of the lamp ! The elo- 
 quence, the animated and charming style, the sweet 
 
118 HE^JRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 melancholy, the appeal to the sentiments and passions 
 by which the author studies to instil the love of soli- 
 tude into the reader, elevated me from the beginning 
 to an unkno\vn region of poesy, and I thanked Pro- 
 vidence for having given me the companionship of a 
 master capable of poetizing the bitterness of exile, of 
 making me more contented with my chains, and 
 of tempering my rebellious heart to the uniformity of 
 inactivity, to the long monotony of quiet. 
 
 But soon a sad thought assailed me. " Was this 
 philosopher " (I asked myself), " who with such 
 a bounteous hand scatters the flowers of eloquence 
 over the charms of solitude — was he in faict a pri- 
 soner like myself? Had he been constrained like 
 me by superior and invincible force to make the 
 sacrifice of his own will ? He who with such power 
 descants on the advantages of retirement — does he 
 know how full of death is solitude, — how empty of 
 all affections, of bonds, of memories, of aspirations ? 
 Solitude stripped of every germ of love — shackled 
 with a thousand usages, one more servile than an- 
 other — sentenced to a perpetual and ignoble ste- 
 rQity?" 
 
 I fell deeper than ever into despondency. A hand 
 of iron was on my throat ; I felt as if I should 
 suffocate. 
 
 The neighbouring clock had already struck one ; 
 I closed the book, and, extinguishing the light, I 
 
THE BELL. 119 
 
 opened the window to breathe more freely. The 
 sky was covered with heavy clouds taoving about 
 according to the impulse of the wind. On the edge 
 of the horizon a solitary star gave out a faint ray, 
 and the moon, likewise dimmed with haze, showed 
 with uncertain light on the convent walls. Some 
 drops of rain which now and then pattered on the 
 pavement alone interrupted the general silence. 
 
 It occuiTed to me to write to my mother ; to pen 
 a letter of tears. I relit the lamp, and made a rapid 
 draft of it ; but deeming its style too agitated, I tore 
 it up. 
 
 " Would it not be better," was my reflection, " to 
 confide my sorrow and my straits to my aunt? But 
 at this hour she must be asleep. I will waken her." 
 
 To reach her room it was necessary to traverse a 
 gloomy corridor. I knocked at the door — there was 
 no answer ; the knock was repeated. The servant 
 recognising my voice opened the door, bewildered at 
 such a visit. 
 
 The sight of me at that hour and in such violent 
 emotion filled the Abbess with astonishment. Having 
 requested that the lay sister should retire, " Dear 
 aunt," I said, hardly able to master the emotion which 
 assailed me, " it grieves me sorely to bring this trouble 
 upon you ; but time presses, and my fate rushes 
 along with it. I do not wish to let myself be sur- 
 prised by events which lie beyond duty." 
 
120 HENRIETTA CAKACCIOLO. 
 
 I then informed her with much exactness of that 
 chain of circumstances which had induced me to re- 
 turn to the convent, in all which I had stipulated for 
 ultimate freedom ; and concluded with declaring that 
 I felt not the slightest vocation for the monastic life 
 — ^nay, the most insuperable repugnance. 
 
 The poor old woman broke into tears, and, hiding 
 her face with her hands, exclaimed — 
 
 "Alas! alas! what a disgrace is this for my old 
 age, for my last abbesship ! What will the sisters 
 say? What wUl the cardinal say, and the vicar — 
 the whole world? They will call you insane, and 
 myself still more so, for having induced you to re- 
 enter. And St. Benedict's bell too, which rang, and 
 the public papers which wUl speak of it ! What a 
 scandal it will be ; what a handle for the freethinkers 
 in the city ! " 
 
 The poor old creature wept bitterly at these re- 
 flections. Her perturbation, her great age, and her 
 extreme resemblance to my beloved father, to whom 
 I had never given cause for a moment's displeasure, 
 pained me sorely, and brought me to the resolution 
 of sacrificing myself. 
 
 Seeing that she would give herself no pause or 
 peace, but kept repeating in a lamenting tone, " Oh 
 what terrible misfortune! what shame for me!" I 
 took one of her hands within mine, and, giving free 
 vent to my grief, " Dear aunt ! " I exclaimed, " be 
 
THE BELL. 121 
 
 comforted and lie down again ; I will no longer rebel 
 against my fate." 
 
 She raised her head and looked fixedly at me. 
 I continued, " Yes ! I will become a nun ; it will 
 cost me my life ; there will be one unfortunate the 
 less ; but assuredly I will not embitter the last days 
 of my father's sister." 
 
 I could proceed no farther, sobs choked my utter- 
 ance. We remained both embraced without uttering 
 a word. At last she resumed the conversation, and 
 placing a sacred relic she wore round her neck upon 
 my head, " May the blessing of the Holy Mother be 
 upon you, my daughter ! " she said ; " God and our 
 sainted patriarch will support you in this sacrifice. 
 I will pray night and morning that this vocation 
 which you have not may be granted you, and my 
 pr.iyers will be heard." She exacted from me the 
 promise tbat the incidents of that nightly conference 
 should not be repeated to a living soul, and this I 
 promised. 
 
 The introduction of newspapers into the convent is 
 forbidden. Nevertheless the Canon, taking me aside 
 on the following morning, put before me two papers 
 still damp from the press, in which the public had 
 the following announcement of my decision. One of 
 them wrote — 
 
 " We hasten to communicate a fact which will give 
 the devout of all classes great pleasure. Henrietta, 
 
122 HENRIETTA CARACCIOLO, 
 
 one of the daughters of the late and much regretted 
 JIarshal Caracciolo, of the princes of Forino, a young 
 lady of rare piety, has decided on repudiating the 
 vanities of the world for the purpose of taking the 
 veil in the convent of San Gregorio Armeno." 
 
 The other Diario, a well-known organ of the 
 priestly clique, bore the following : — 
 
 " The bell of St. Benedict has again rung ! and on 
 this occasion to mark the acquisition to the angelic 
 Benedictine order of another Caracciolo, of tender 
 years ; a descendant in a direct line from St. Francesco 
 of the same name. This young lady, who had mani- 
 fested the utmost reluctance to embrace the monastic 
 life, has now, after a summons during sleep from the 
 miraculous bell, formally expressed her intention to 
 take the veil. Ye impious, and unbelievers, favete 
 Unguis animisque ! " 
 
 On one night, about a month after I had returnedi 
 and during a sleepless night, I again heard the same 
 bell which had wakened me on the eve of my quitting 
 the convent. 
 
 I then became aware that the room adjoining that 
 of my aunt, and separated from it by a thin wall, was 
 occupied by a blind nun, who during the hours of 
 the night was in the habit of making a repeater 
 strike when she wished to know the hour. The state 
 of mental agitation I was in on that and the former 
 night, increased by the tales of superstitious horrors 
 
THE BELL. 123 
 
 of the nuns, caused me to mistake the sound of the 
 repeater for a bell. 
 
 In the mean time my mother remained silent. I 
 addressed a letter to her, as did also my aunt, 
 to announce the resolution I had made. She 
 answered that she would not permit me to observe 
 this, and for many months opposed the most obstinate 
 resistance. It was her intention, she said, to marry 
 me to a person of her own selection, and she would 
 only permit me to remain in the convent until such 
 an opportunity presented itself. 
 
 The commands, however, could not be put into 
 effect immediately. In the month of August, 1840, 
 I had not yet reached the required age to assume the 
 veil. I completed my twentieth year in 1841 only. 
 I therefore had to wait until the month of October 
 of this latter year, or for a period of twenty months 
 from my entrance into the cloister. 
 
 This interval was dedicated by the sisterhood to 
 the preparation, at my expense, of the confectionery 
 for the festive occasion ; and during this period also 
 my aunt, who for ten consecutive years had filled the 
 office of abbess, was replaced by another Caracciolo — 
 a woman of rather severe and imperious character. 
 Her rigour, in contrast to the exceeding mildness of 
 my aunt's sway, caused general dissatisfaction. 
 
 It was permitted me, in compliment to my mother 
 that I should pass forty days, prior to my taking the 
 
124 HENRIETTA CAEACCIOLO. 
 
 VOWS, witli her. I was, however, obliged to pay down 
 before I got out 700 ducats for the expenses of the 
 ceremony; and here I take the opportunity of re- 
 cording that the excellent General Saluzzi kept his 
 promise to me, making me a gift of 1 000 ducats. 
 
 In the mean time my mother, who had returned 
 from Calabria, was residing in Josephine's house 
 with my two younger sisters. She, as well as my 
 other relatives, seeing my resignation under an evil 
 which seemed to me without remedy, thought my 
 vocation real ; for, as I was to quit the world for ever, 
 and to avoid further heartburnings, I avoided going 
 into any society, declined theatres, concerts, prome- 
 nades, &c. 
 
 More than once I was on the point of opening my 
 heart to the General, who was like a second father to 
 me, and asking his aid ; but my pledged word sealed 
 my lips. He had likewise disbursed the money, of 
 which the greater part was already expended. If I 
 then wished to break the solemn pledge I had given 
 to my aunt and the nuns, could I retract without 
 cutting a sorry figure before my benefactor ? 
 
 There was absolutely no alternative for me. I had 
 to close my eyes and abandon myself to my destiny. 
 
 The day came ! A crowd of relations and friends 
 filled the saloons of my brother-in-law from an early 
 hour — the gentlemen in animated and gay discussion 
 — the ladies in merry gossip — the youngest at the 
 
THE BELL. ' 125 
 
 piano — I was tlie only one with tlie bitterness of 
 wormwood in my mouth. 
 
 At ten o'clock I was summoned for the preparation. 
 I was garlanded with begemmed flowers like a bride. 
 They put on me a costly dress of white lace, and- 
 attached a veil of the same colour to my head de- 
 scending to the feet. Four ladies aided in the toilette, 
 and two others were to accompany me — the Duchess 
 of Carigliano and the Princess of Castagnetto. 
 
 Conformable to the custom, these ladies com- 
 menced by taking me to different convents in order 
 to exhibit me to the respective nuns. I followed 
 like an automaton, mute and abstracted — and 1 
 started into consciousness only when, seated in the 
 porteria of the convent of San Patrizia by the side 
 of my other Benedictine aunt, I saw two acolytes 
 enter hurriedly dressed for mass, and who cried — 
 
 " Ladies ! O hasten to San- Gregorio Armeno ; the 
 service is ended ; they are waiting only for the 
 nun. 
 
 A dagger plunged into my heart could not have 
 given me a greater shock than I felt at this summons. 
 1 trembled in all my limbs, and my face became like 
 that of the dead. 
 
 The Duchess of Carigliano was the first to rise. 
 
 I pressed my hand upon my heart. I rose with 
 difficulty, and kissed my old aunt, who weeping said 
 to me, — 
 
126 HEXRIKTTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 "This is our last kiss! Farewell, my daughter: 
 we shall meet ia heavea." 
 
 The Princess, who had approached me, examined 
 my countenance narrowly, 
 
 " Stop, Duchess ! " she said to La Carigliano ; " do 
 you not see that our young nun is going to faint ? " 
 
 In fact, supporting myself by the back of the chair, 
 I was tottering and on the point of falling. A glass 
 of water revived me, and I stood up. 
 
 " I wUl wager," said the Princess, on the road, 
 " that you are not going to take the veil with all 
 your will." 
 
 " On the contrary," I replied, suppressing a traitor- 
 ous sigh, " I am most willing." 
 
 In the mean time the carriage advanced and en- 
 tered the Quartiere San Lorenzo. As we approached 
 the Citta dolente — that abode of woe — I put my head 
 out of the window, and with a kind of desperate 
 curiosity eyed the window-screens, the lattices, the 
 iron grating, and other defences of the convent. At 
 the sight of the huge sepulchre which stood ready to 
 engulf me, I do not know why, urged by irresistible 
 impulse, I did not precipitate myself into the middle 
 of the street — the imperious restraint of amour-propre 
 alone withheld me. The nearer I approached to 
 S. Gregorio Armeno, the louder became the sound 
 of the bells — every stroke was a deatlistroke to me. 
 At the corner of the street, the confused tongues of 
 
THE BELL. 127 
 
 the multitude which had collected from every part, 
 the firing of mortaletti, the acclamations of women 
 out on the balconies, and the band of the Swiss 
 regiment, put the crowning point to the state of 
 stupefaction I was in — I have experienced what must 
 be the last sensations of the condemned to death. 
 
 At the principal door I was received by a proces- 
 sion of priests with the cross elevated. Two other 
 ladies, the Princess Montemiletto and the Marchioness 
 Messanella, placed themselves by my side. The priest 
 who carried the cross walked in front, the others 
 formed two wings. 
 
 The church was decorated with much elegance and 
 profusely illuminated — divided in the centre by a 
 railing painted red and white, on the right side of 
 which were stationed the ladies who had been invited 
 by my mother ; on the left stood the gentlemen, who 
 were received by my cousin the Prince of Forino. 
 
 Of that numerous assembly, and highly decorated 
 church and its ocean of light, I was conscious of 
 nothing but a formless and confused mass. Arrived 
 midway in the church, I was desired to kneel — a 
 silver crucifix and a lighted taper were placed in 
 my hands — the former I was directed to hold against 
 my bosom with my left hand, the latter I was to 
 carry in my right. 
 
 I reached the high altar. The Vicar performed 
 the service, the Cardinal (who was seated at the side) 
 
128 HEMKIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 being somewhat indisposed. The ladies and myself 
 remained for a few moments on our knees in front 
 of the altar. I was then conducted to the Vicar and 
 directed to kneeL 
 
 A priest in a superbly embroidered dress presented 
 a small silver basin with a pair of scissors — with this 
 he cut off a single tress of hair. 
 
 I arose, and accompanied by the same procession, 
 and preceded by the band, left the church. 
 
 The short distance which lay between this and the 
 convent-lodge was accomplished by the whole cortege 
 on foot, and in the midst of a crowd of the populace. 
 When I was once more within its walls I broke 
 into one of those floods of tears which it is not 
 within human power to control The nuns were most 
 anxious to close the doors, crying — 
 
 " For God's sake don't cry, or the seculars will 
 not think that you are going to take the veil of your 
 own free will — hush ! for pity's sake, hush ! " 
 
 I went down to the Communion — the Vicar, the 
 priests, and all those who were invited, formed a 
 crowd at the grating. When there, I was stripped by 
 the nuns of my gay attire, of my veil, of my wreath, 
 gloves, even my stockings. Clad in black serge, with 
 my hair gathered closely up, and eyes swollen with 
 weeping, I presented myself at the door of the Com- 
 munion. 
 
 The Vicar blessed the scapulary, and having handed 
 
THE BELL. 129 
 
 it to me, I put it on ; I then knelt before the Abbess 
 — they had stripped me of my secular dress ; they 
 were now to cut my hair off. The nuns plaited my 
 long hair in a single tress, and the Abbess took the 
 large scissors, and with firm hand, prepared to cut. 
 A clear, strong voice at that moment sounded through 
 the crowd, "It is barbarous ! don't cut that girl's 
 hair!" 
 
 All turned round — " Some madman ! " it was 
 whispered. It was an Englishman. The priests 
 commanded silence, and the nuns, who had frequently 
 seen Protestants as spectators of their ceremonies, 
 cried to the Superior, as &he stood grasping the 
 scissors, " It is a heretic I cut ! " 
 
 The hair fell, and I had taken the veil. 
 
 K 
 
130 HKSRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE PROFESSION. 
 
 The year of my noviciate was a year of entire calm 
 for me, if I should not rather call it of moral depres- 
 sion. The past was dead for me ; the future a blank ; 
 my reminiscences a dream ; to hope a crime. 
 
 Tom for ever from friends, separated from relatives, 
 whom it was permitted me to see but once a month, 
 a stranger for many reasons to the very companions 
 of my prison, I found myself, if not contented, at 
 least tranquil. Concentrated exclusively wi'thin it- 
 self, my mind created a second monastery vrithin the 
 monastery itself that I was conGned in ; and I should 
 have been calmer still within the compass of that 
 deeply-embosomed abode, where I passed such soli- 
 tary existence, with my few books and meditations, 
 if the visits of relatives had not every time brought 
 back the memory of my lost liberty, — if the nuns, with 
 
THE PROFESSION. 131 
 
 their trivial gossip and vulgar jealousies, had not ren- 
 dered my confinement irksome. 
 
 I passed many hours of the day in the choir. It 
 was my ofiSce to summon the others thereto by ring- 
 ing a bell ; the rest of the time I remained shut up 
 in my room, or in a Uttle room set apart for novices, 
 in the company of the mistress appointed over these, 
 who in silence and patiently used to hear me read. 
 
 By good fortune for me this was an amiable woman 
 of about sixty-four years of age, and she became 
 much attached to me. Her name was Marianna ; 
 but I was in the habit of calling her aunt, after the 
 usage of the younger towards the elders. 
 
 I know not whether her years may have rendered 
 her insensible to the confessors, or whether she had 
 ever entertained any affectionate- regard for them ; 
 but she did not approve of the reprehensible conduct 
 of the nuns with regard to them. Her way of think- 
 ing, similar to my own, her affection for me, which 
 far exceeded that of my real aunt, were reasons which 
 attached me to her with bonds of almost filial affec- 
 tion. 
 
 It was the custom in that convent on solemn occa- 
 sions, and also on the birthdays of mistress or novice, 
 for the first to make a present to the latter of some 
 object. As she was very rich, and I with very re- 
 stricted means, receiving no allowance whatever (as I 
 had paid away my entire dower on professing), she 
 
 K 2 
 
132 HENRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 would always make me this present in money, using 
 the utmost delicacy and courtesy in the act. 
 
 She could not bear that a word, direct or indirect, 
 should be said to my disadvantage. 
 
 One day, the Abbess having summoned the sisters 
 together for the purpose of delivering an admonition 
 on the subject of the flagrant irregularities of the 
 sisterhood, in concluding her discourse said, turning 
 to the younger amongst them, — 
 
 " You have been the ruin of the sisterhood. We, 
 the elders, knew nothing of party factions, schisms, of 
 hatreds, jealousies, or envyings ; it is you last-comers, 
 abounding in nothing but selfishness and arrogance, 
 who have introduced every dissension into the con- 
 vent." 
 
 My mistress then spoke : 
 
 " You must except from this number my novice. 
 She found the convent in this condition ; would to 
 heaven that the others were as obedient and as 
 observant of its rules as she !" 
 
 " Alas ! the mistress's partiality had no other effect 
 than that of creating enemies for me. The one who 
 manifested the most determined hostility to me was 
 Paolina, who had placed herself at the head of a troop 
 of pupils for this end; she hating me, through I know 
 not what monastic craving for something to hate ; 
 the others, because I, as novice, had passed a step 
 beyond them as pupils. In the eighth month of my 
 
THE PROFESSION. 133 
 
 noviciate my kind mistress and companion fell 
 seriously ill. It was destined that my tranquillity 
 ■was to be but of short duration. 
 
 I had from the first observed a marked delicacy in 
 her ; but I as well as the others was ignorant of the 
 malady which afiSicted this nun. The burning fever 
 which brought her to her bed became complicated 
 with more sinister symptoms. From the first day 
 the disease declared itself mortal ; but the physicians 
 could not define it. It had the character of inflam- 
 mation ; the principal organs of the body were quite 
 exempt from it. 
 
 She soon lost her speech: but would sign to me 
 when she wished my aid. 
 
 As I stood by her bedside she pointed to her breast 
 with a heartrending groan, as if she wanted a succour 
 which I did not understand. 
 
 More than once I wanted to loosen the band whic'h 
 attached the chemise round the throat; but one of 
 her servants, who kept a perpetual guard at her 
 pillow, put forward her hand to prevent me, saying, 
 
 " It is wide enough ! " 
 
 On another occasion, when, in ho-Tible torture, she 
 tried to tear the chemise from her breast, I though 
 I perceived a bandage. 
 
 " What bandage is that? " I asked. 
 
 " She is always in the habit of wearing it," replied 
 the servant, reddening. 
 
134 HENRIETTA CAHACCIOLO. 
 
 " But it is preventing her breathing freely; let me 
 loosen it." 
 
 " No," replied the woman, rudely pushing aside my 
 hand; " mind your own concerns." 
 
 I looked attentively at her, and could see that she 
 had some concealed motive for acting thus ; the more 
 so, as the breast of the dying woman exhaled a most 
 fetid odour. 
 
 As I was not in the habit of temporizing where 
 feelings of humanity were concerned, I went in search 
 of the Infermiera, whom I told to inform the doctor 
 that he should order the bandage to be removed. 
 This was done, notwithstanding the violent opposition 
 of the maid, and the furious looks she darted at me. 
 
 A frightful cancer had eaten away the half of her 
 breast. 
 
 Doctor Lucarelli, who arrived later to visit her, 
 when informed of the fact, animadverted in these 
 words on this proceeding : — 
 
 " This servant," he said, " is guilty of homicide ; 
 she herself of suicide, in thus concealing the real 
 evil." 
 
 And yet the motive for all this mystery was the 
 most frivolous that could be imagined ; the mistress, 
 fearing that if her malady became known to the 
 nuns, they would refuse to allow her linen to be 
 washed together with theirs, from the dread of 
 infection, her servant had been bribed by double 
 wages to keep her secret. 
 
THE PROFESSION. 135 
 
 She died on the following day. The obsequies of 
 nuns are most simple. Your entrance into the con- 
 vent is made to the sound of military bands, and the 
 firing of mortaletti ; but the exit into the dark tomb 
 is made with the simplest formality. She had been 
 like a mother to me. In the action of lowering her 
 remains into the grave, I asked and obtained per- 
 mission to give my help. Blessed be her memory ! 
 
 During two months the Abbess herself acted as 
 mistress to me. She likewise became much attached 
 to me, which increased the jealousy of the younger 
 nuns and pupils. After that a new mistress was 
 elected — another Caracciolo, but frivolous, cunning, 
 a dissembler, and a fanatical priest-worshipper. This 
 woman, though perfectly conscious of the secret 
 scandals of the confessional and communion, still, 
 as a rigid enforcer of formalities, imposed daily 
 confession on me. 
 
 The Canon was satisfied with seeing me more 
 tranquillized in mind ; only, that while I denomi- 
 nated this tranquillity resignation, he would persist 
 in calling it true vocation. 
 
 The year of my noviciate drew near its close. 
 I had to provide 1800 ducats for the dotation, and 
 700 for the expenses of the ceremony, out of which, 
 in this as well as in the first ceremony, 80 were 
 reserved as a present to the confessor, and an 
 analogous sum as a compliment to the nuns. The 
 
136 HENRIETTA CAEACCIOLO. 
 
 whole amounted to 3000 crowns. How many 
 millions in dower to the divine and humble Master 
 of the fishermen ? 
 
 The above sum was more than my family could 
 command. I caught at this ditficulty as a ray of 
 hope to light me to liberty again ; but the Chapter, 
 fearing to lose me, consented to admit me with a 
 diminution. I was much chagrined at this, however, 
 for I learnt how many mortifications another had 
 endured who had been allowed to enter on the same 
 terms. 
 
 These bitter insults were not long in reaching me. 
 
 A mm, whose name was Theresa, sent to me to 
 say that she required a small room which my aunt 
 had given up to me, on the pretext that the retention 
 of such a room was inconsistent with my dotation. 
 I returned answer that the room was absolutely 
 necessary to me ; it was near the choir, where my 
 duties lay. 
 
 This Theresa, an overbearing woman, who could 
 not brook any opposition to her wUl, began imme- 
 diately a system of annoyances, together with her 
 sister Paolina, whose hatred of me was visibly in- 
 creased. 
 
 One day I happened to be in the dormitory when 
 her servant was there. This woman had the inso- 
 lence to stop me, and say to me, with the gesti- 
 culation worthy of the lowest lazzarone, — 
 
THE PROFESSIOlSr. 137 
 
 " You have dared to refuse my mistress the room 
 she wanted ! Do you know that she and her sisters 
 have brought in here not one or two but four dowries, 
 and not short, but the entire sum ? They are mis- 
 tresses here, more than any other nun in the con- 
 vent ; while you, nothing but a soldier's daughter, 
 come in here without a penny in your pocket, and 
 out of charity are allowed to become a nun." 
 
 I made her no reply, out of respect for myself. 
 Could I have condescended to bandy words with this 
 insolent creature, I could have told her that from 
 the foundation of that convent the Caracciolo-Forino 
 had brought in not four but hundreds of dowries, 
 and could have reminded her that her mistress's 
 brother was but a simple captain in an infantry 
 regiment. 
 
 My mother, when she heard from me of the morti- 
 fications I had received, promised that she would 
 try and arrange the matter of dotation more in con- 
 formity with the prejudices of the nuns. I made some 
 observations in private on this point to the Abbess. 
 
 " How can I possibly help you, my daughter ? " 
 she replied. " You must keep yourself clear from 
 the wickedness of others, in the best way you can. 
 All I can tell you is, that if it requires the prudence 
 of three to live in the world outside, believe me it 
 requires that of twenty to live here within. In the 
 world, if our passions are easily excited, they are also 
 
138 HSNRIEITA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 easily managed ; but, shut up, compressed, con- 
 densed, as it were, within this narrow receptacle, 
 they burst out sometimes with such terrific force as 
 to paralyze the intrepidity and calculations of the 
 soundest diplomacy. In self-defence, you must arm 
 yourself with a little guile and hypocrisy. Is there 
 any meal without its salt? — without hypocrisy you 
 will not get through." 
 
 With the consent of the superiors, one of my rela- 
 tions was induced to execute a bond, by which he 
 appeared to constitute himself my debtor in the sum 
 of 1000 ducats, and to make it over to the convent, 
 to complete the sum of 1800 ducats, engaging him- 
 self to pay 50 ducats of yearly interest. 
 
 This matter being so arranged, and the prepara- 
 tions made, the 1st of October was appointed as the 
 day on which I was to take the vows — the anni- 
 versary of my " vestizione." I was enjoined to cease 
 all private study and readings, and to dedicate my- 
 self wholly, and for several weeks, to the customary 
 observances. During the ten days preceding, the 
 Canon appointed all my spiritual tasks ; and he also 
 preached a sermon in the parlour. 
 
 The priests saj' that taking the veil is a second 
 baptism, which washes away all former sins; that 
 should the individual die at the moment of pro- 
 nouncing the monastic vows, she goes straightway to 
 heaven, in the same way as the soul of the infant 
 
THE PROFESSION. 139 
 
 that dies immediately on receiving baptism. Cour- 
 teous reader, picture to yourself the practical appli- 
 cations of such a doctrine. 
 
 Over and above this, they pretend that whatever 
 favour is asked of God at that moment, He is bound 
 to grant it. I entreated for two boons — a sound 
 sentiment for my vocation, and health for my poor 
 sister Josephine. I obtained neither one nor the 
 other. Josephine, shortly after, left this for a better 
 world, and I, in time, became a prey to despair. 
 
 As I have spoken of the doctrines of the confessors 
 in the interior of the monastery, I cannot pass over in 
 silence an expiatory practice, to which the nuns of 
 St. Gregorio attribute infallible virtue. There is on 
 the right side of the communion a magnificent marble 
 staircase, called the " Scala Santa," which has been 
 the object of a Papal Bull. On every Friday in the 
 month of March the entire community, commencing 
 with the Abbess, down to the lowest lay sister, is 
 obliged to ascend this on their knees, reciting a 
 prayer at each step. In the accomplishment of this 
 act a new indulgence is gained at each step, uutU, 
 having reached the highest, the nun is completely 
 purged of all sin, either of intention or act ; and it is 
 well understood that the spiritual director of the con- 
 fessional — the interpreter of the Bull of Indulgence — 
 is never slow in applying to the consciences of his 
 penitents the portentous " Toties Quoties." Thence 
 
140 HENRIETTA CAEACCIOLO. 
 
 if the font of the profession washes without distinction 
 all the sins committed during the pupilage and novi- 
 ciate, the " Scala Santa " stands ever there to purify 
 the veil from every little spot which might have 
 gathered on it from that day forth to the limits of 
 extreme old age. 
 
 A word further on spiritual exercises. The ad- 
 mission to the vows presupposes a preliminary 
 examination. This examination I imderwent from 
 the Vicar-General of the Neapolitan Church. The 
 primary intention of this was to inquire into the 
 freedom of will in assuming the noviciate ; but as 
 everything degenerates in this world, this amounts 
 now to a mere formality. The following may be 
 given, in passing, as a specimen of the frivolous 
 questions put to me : — 
 
 " If, on the demise of a female sovereign, the crown 
 should by some chance be offered to you, would you, 
 for the possession of an ephemeral and perilous 
 diadem, renounce the high honour of being called the 
 spouse of the Son of God ?" 
 
 I answered at once, " No." 
 
 " If you received from the royal palace an invita- 
 tion to a ball, and if you obtained permission from 
 the Superior to go out, would you feel tempted to 
 accept it ? " 
 
 The same answer. 
 
 " If in this very moment a splendid equipage with 
 
THE PROFKSSIOX l4l 
 
 four beautiful horses came to the door, and you were 
 invited to take a drive along the Riviera di Chiaja, 
 would you go out?" 
 
 I still answered in the negative. 
 
 But I do not know what my answer might have 
 been if instead he had asked — 
 
 " Is your heart dead to love ? " 
 
 " If your lover threw himself now at your feet, and 
 vowed to conduct you this very day to the altar, 
 would you hesitate to go out?" 
 
 The interrogatory, with inimitable dexterity, steers 
 clear through this rocky archipelago, and pilots only 
 in the unruffled waters of inanity. 
 
 Clerical wiliness has provided against the pos- 
 sibility of a young girl unreservedly and distinctly 
 expressing in this examination her abhorrence of the 
 State to be embraced when forced thereto by the 
 violence of parents or the persuasion of the confessor. 
 They have decreed that the scapulary be torn from 
 her back, and that within twenty-four hours she is to 
 be driven out of the convent with the words — 
 
 " Out with you ! out with the damned ! You are 
 unworthy to live in the company of the brides of 
 Jesus!" 
 
 This harsh indignity, which no young girl has the 
 courage to face, renders the year of the noviciate 
 useless, and she finds herself fast bound from the 
 hour she has taken the first veil. 
 
142 he::jrietta caracciolo. 
 
 The last and decisive day came. At seven o'clock 
 on the morning of the 1st of October the Canon 
 made his appearance, and he kept me in the con- 
 fessional' untill eleven, the hour the ceremony was to 
 commence. 
 
 By degrees the church filled with those who had 
 been invited to the ceremony. There were several 
 persons of distinction amongst them ; General Saluzzi 
 had conducted thither the Hereditary Prince of Den- 
 mark.* He was travelling incognito, and had not 
 yet reached his twentieth year. Both wore the ribbon 
 of the Order of San Gennaro. 
 
 Cardinal Caracciolo intoned the " Pontificale," at 
 the termination of which the persons invited crowded 
 up to the communion-table, and I, accompanied by 
 four nuns carrying lighted candles, approached it also. 
 
 Two of these nuns then presented an imfolded 
 parchment before me, on which was written in Latin 
 the form of oath, surrounded with gilded arabesques, 
 and illuminated with pictures of saints, &c. 
 
 This I was to repeat aloud. My voice failed me, 
 and I could hardly make it audible. I heard some 
 one say — 
 
 « Louder ! " 
 
 I made an effort to raise my voice, but in pro- 
 nouncing the four vows of chastity, poverty, obedience, 
 
 * The late King Frederick Til. 
 
THE PROFESSION. 143 
 
 and perpetual seclusion, I broke down altogether, and 
 was obliged to stop for some moments. 
 
 At the same instant a lighted candle, carried by 
 one of the nuns, fell from her hand extinguished. 
 Singular augury ! 
 
 When the reading was at last finished, I signed my 
 name to it, as did also the Abbess and the Cardinal. 
 
 Within the communion rails was a spot covered 
 with a carpet. Upon this I was directed to He down 
 with my face to the earth, and was then covered with 
 a pall which had a skeleton worked in the centre. 
 Four torches burned at the four corners of this, and 
 the death-bell commenced to toll, whose strokes were 
 responded to every now and then by a deep groan 
 proceeding from the depths of the church. 
 
 A few moments passed thus, when the Cardinal, 
 turning towards where I lay, called me forth, repeat- 
 ing the following apostrophe three times : " Surge quce 
 dormis et exsurge a mortuis et illuminahit te Christus" 
 (" thou who sleepest in death, arise ; God will 
 enlighten thee"). At the first repetition they raised 
 the pall which covered me ; at the second I rose to 
 my knees on the carpet ; on the third I stood upright, 
 and walked towards the communion. 
 
 Another Latin phrase, not less a mystification than 
 the preceding one, caught my ear — Ui vivant mortui 
 et moreantur viventes. The dead language of Latium 
 is used to call social life a death. The language of 
 
144 HEXKIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 Dante and of regenerate Italy, on the contrary, calls 
 death the monastic stagnation. 
 
 Finally, the Cardinal having blessed the Bene- 
 dictine cowl which I put over the tunic, I took the 
 communion. Then came the Abbess and kissed me, 
 followed by the nuns in hierarchical order, for the 
 same purpose ; and after a short sermon the ceremony 
 was at an end. 
 
 The guests then ascended to the parlour, where 
 refreshments and sweetmeats were served. They 
 waited until I had recovered some serenity of counte- 
 nance before they opened the door to exhibit me to 
 them. The Prince of Denmark approached with the 
 General, and through the medium of the latter he 
 inquired of me if I were perfectly content at taking 
 the veil. On my answering affirmatively, his coun- 
 tenance expressed incredulity. He desired to examine 
 my cowl ; it was composed of black serge, with very 
 long peak and wide sleeves, the last remembrance of 
 Madame de Maintenon's monastic life. 
 
 It is the custom for the nuns to present a bouquet 
 of artificial roses to the Cardinal and also to each of 
 the bishops present at the ceremony. I offered one 
 likewise to the prince, who accepted it with exquisite 
 courtesy. 
 
 " Dead roses from one dead ! " said my benefactor 
 to his Royal Highness. 
 
 " Let us go, General ; there is little satisfaction in 
 witnessing the sacrifice of that young girl." 
 
THE PROFESSION. 145 
 
 When all had left, the iron gates of the convent 
 creaked again on their hinges, and a gulf separated 
 me from the world, in the belief of all impassable. 
 From thenceforth I was to have neither mother nor 
 sisters, neither relatives nor friends, nor one on whom 
 to rely; I had even abdicated my own personality. 
 Still, in the recesses of my heart, I felt alive and 
 palpitating that sentiment which bids us live, in ima- 
 gination at least, with our fellow beings. In enter- 
 ing the sisterhood I had made the sacrifice of my 
 personal liberty, but not that of my reason, which is 
 an inalienable right. Higher still than that of St. 
 Benedict, the voice of Christ spoke to my conscience ; 
 of Christ, the citizen of the world, the destroyer of 
 sects, the leveller of castes, of party associations, the 
 regenerator of humanity, united in one sole bond of 
 love and preservation. 
 
146 HENRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE "charity" of NUNS. 
 
 "Come ye," writes St. Matthew, "come ye blessed 
 of my Father: for I was hungry, and ye gave me meat: 
 I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink : I was a stranger, 
 and ye took me in : naked, and ye clothed me : sick, 
 and ye visited me ; in prison, and ye came unto me. 
 Then shall they say unto him. Lord, when saw we 
 thee an hungered, and fed thee : or thirsty, and gave 
 thee drink ? Then shall he answer them, and say : 
 Verily, I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it 
 to the least of these my brethren, ye have done it 
 unto me." 
 
 These were the sentiments which inspired St. Bene- 
 dict in the writing of his " Eules." 
 
 "Whoever shall ask aid of you, let them be received 
 as Christ himself ; then he will say to you, ' I was a 
 stranger, and ye took me in.' " 
 
 Hearts opened to charity, for charity was personi- 
 
THE " charity" of NUNS. 147 
 
 fied in Christ. Then was beneficence organised on 
 a large scale. Houses of refuge were erected, asylums 
 for the stranger. The order of Monks Hospitallers 
 was founded, foundling hospitals, orphan aSylums : the 
 sick, the poor, the old, the blind, the invalided, the 
 shipwrecked, found special refuges. True hospitality, 
 dogmatised hospitality, social hospitality, saw the 
 light in the very cradle itself of Christianity, and was 
 exercised for benefit of the infirm or the unfortunate, 
 whom the pagan world oppressed or destroyed. 
 
 Amongst the ancients, woman held a no more im- 
 portant position than simply that of a means of 
 reproduction. Philosophy itself had judged her as an 
 incomplete existence. Christianity reveals her mis- 
 sion, which is that of charity and devotion. In Eng- 
 land, in Germany, or amongst those nations where 
 Catholicism is raised to the level of the age, the Sister 
 of Charity tends the sick, comforts the suffering, and 
 bestows on the most loathsome diseases the most un- 
 remitting solicitude. The daughter of St. Vincent 
 de Paul tends day and night the aged sick, dresses 
 his revolting sores, comforts the dying, and, become 
 a mother without having ceased to be a virgin, warms 
 in her bosom the abandoned little one. The fair 
 title of " Maria del Soccorso " remains to the foun- 
 dress of a pious society of women dedicated to the 
 relief of poor strangers. The Bethlemite Sisters took 
 the vows to succour the poor and sick, " even the un- 
 
 L 2 
 
148' .HENRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 believers;" and in our own times the fame of Miss 
 Nightingale sounds reverently throughout the old 
 as the new hemisphere. " There is perhaps nothing 
 more sublime or touching on this earth," says an 
 eminent philosopher, " than the sacrifice which a 
 delicate sex makes of its youth, its beauty, often 
 of high birth, to tend in hospitals that mass of 
 human miseries, the spectacle of which is as humi- 
 liating to our pride as it is repugnant to our senses." 
 
 From this charity, made divine by Christ, incul- 
 cated by St. Benedict, humanely practised by the 
 clergy of uncivilized Christianity, how widely distant 
 are the monks and nuns of Southern Italy ! 
 
 An old proverb, suggested by experience, thus 
 speaks of them : " They unite without knowing each 
 other, live together without loving each other, die 
 without weeping for each other." 
 
 Few sayings in the mouth of the populace are more 
 true than the following: — "The religion of these 
 hypocrites is no more than an article of linen. They 
 put it on and off just as it suits them, and when it 
 gets dirty they send it to the washerwoman." 
 
 I applied for the duty of Infirraiera,* and readily 
 obtained it, for the greater portion of the sisters 
 refused it. There were many who would not con- 
 descend to fulfil the functions of it ; and it was also 
 
 ♦ Infirmary matron or head nurse. 
 
THE " CHARITY " OF NUNS. 149 
 
 a fact that there were numberless instauces of nuns 
 aflSicted with chronic diseases, bedridden, who during 
 the long period of their confinement and suffering 
 never once received the visit or the sympathy of their 
 fellow inmates. Nor did these latter in that interval 
 ever spare their uncharitable comments on the sub- 
 ject of the malady ; they were sure to know for what 
 sin it was that this, and not another disease, had 
 been sent by God for their punishment, and at their 
 pleasure consigned them to hell or purgatory. 
 
 The triennial office of the rigorous Abbess had 
 reached its term, and my frivolous and hypocritical 
 mistress (with the exception of my vote) was elected 
 unanimously. 
 
 A preceding abbess, who during her term of rule 
 had suffered much vexation, died shortly after this 
 term had ceased. Her malady was a painful one, 
 and her deathbed prolonged and awful. The nuns 
 grouped round her bed, spectators of her terrible 
 sufferings, would repeat aloud, 
 
 " She is suffering now for her bad abbesship. God 
 is punishing her." 
 
 An old servant was suffering from an abscess which 
 extended from the heel to the knee. On one occa- 
 sion I was dressing the sore when the bell sounded 
 for service. I made all the haste possible, but the 
 applications took some time, and when I had reached 
 the choir the service had already commenced, with 
 
150 HENRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 but five nuns present. I was reprimanded by the 
 Abbess for a deed of charity, whilst the absentees, 
 who had been passing their time in amorous dis- 
 course, passed unnoticed. 
 
 It was the custom in the convent to place the dead 
 (after being dressed) on the ground, and four servants 
 were appointed to this duty. One of these was a 
 fiend in a religious garb. She refused to get out of 
 bed to dress the coi-pse of a fellow servant I rated 
 her soundly. She then rose, and in a furious passion, 
 seizing the body by the foot, dragged it into the 
 middle of the floor, crying, 
 
 " By the Madonna ! didn't you know how to do 
 that much ? " 
 
 The crash which the head of the dead woman 
 made upon the tiled floor thrills me still with horror. 
 The dead in the days of the plague were treated with 
 more humanity. I appealed to the Abbess against 
 this inhuman conduct 
 
 " This is a matter," she replied, " which concerns 
 the conscience of the lay sister more than my rule ; 
 besides, they all act thus." 
 
 This same servant was conducting a blind nun one 
 Sunday to hear mass. Something occurred to annoy 
 her, and she precipitated the poor blind creature 
 from the top to the bottom of the stairs. The unfor- 
 tunate woman died of the effects of this fall. 
 
 On another occasion she beat an invalid cruelly. 
 
THE "charity" of NUKS. 151 
 
 who used to call her (as she thought) too frequently, 
 to be turned in the bed. 
 
 I made a representation to the Abbess that this 
 barbarous woman should not be employed in the In- 
 firmary, but my remonstrances were not attended to. 
 
 There exists in Naples an incalculable number of 
 ladies, both married and unmarried, resident in the 
 different convents, retreats, and conservatorii of the 
 city. I might say that there were few families there 
 who had not one or more members of the weaker sex 
 in deposit there, like an object of mortmain in those 
 receptacles of domestic superfluity. A lady who had 
 thus for many years retired into a convent, suffered 
 there a repetition of an apoplectic attack, and fell to 
 the ground, but was raised and placed on a bed by 
 a young servant who heard her fall, and found her 
 covered with blood. The Superior reprimanded the 
 girl for having aided her. 
 
 " Should I, then, have left her to die on the 
 ground?" asked the maid. 
 
 "You should have called another of those 'ri- 
 tirate ;' they can take care of each other." 
 
 Not less wanting in all feeling of pity or sympathy 
 are the obsequies of the nuns. A sincere grief, a 
 genuine regret, the tribute of a few tears on the 
 grave of a departed companion, are phenomena rarer 
 to be found in a convent than are the commotions 
 produced on the stage in the world outside it. That 
 
152 HEXRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 apathy which was a virtue with the stoics is the 
 effect of calculation and selfishness with nuns. 
 
 It is customary to bury the dead generally in the 
 forenoon, and the corpse is no sooner consigned to 
 the grave than the dinner-bell rings, and woe betide 
 the servants should (from any cause arising out of 
 this ceremony) the never-failing maccaroni be ever so 
 little over-done. 
 
 In order to preserve intact the patrimonial hoard 
 for the male heir, an affluent family had vowed the 
 two eldest daughters to the cloister, and were reserv- 
 ing the third for the same lot. The girl was, in her 
 twelfth year, taken for this purpose to Naples by her 
 parents, and was accompanied to the door of the 
 convent by a dog, which she had reared from a 
 puppy, with singular affection. When the moment 
 of separation arrived, this invaluable friend could not 
 persuade himself that it was necessary to part from 
 his beloved mistress. Warmer in his affection than 
 the parents themselves, he allows them to take their 
 departure without a lament ; but no longer finding 
 the object of his adoration in the ante-room, and after 
 long and wistful watching of the door she had passed 
 through, he commenced a piteous wail, as it were, to 
 supplicate the maiden to hasten her return. Dogs 
 not being allowed within the convent, the lay porter 
 bestows a volley of kicks on him, and hunts him out ; 
 but the creature, insensible to the maltreatment, 
 
THE "charity" of NUNS. 153 
 
 returns to the spot where he has seen his friend for 
 the last time, and when driven out again, stretched 
 on the pavement of the portico, half frozen, he passes 
 the livelong night in heartrending howls. On the 
 morrow the whole neighbourhood, commiseratiDg 
 his condition, offer him food and caresses. The 
 animal rejects both, intent on nothing but lamenta- 
 tion. For two days and nights this was uninter- 
 rupted ; whilst, above, the young pupil was not less 
 inconsolable. At last the nuns, annoyed at this 
 occurrence, determined to put a sudden and effectual 
 stop to it. The poor dog was found on the morning 
 of the third day — killed — who knows how? — dead 
 on the threshold of his mistress's living tomb. 
 
154 HENRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 CHAPTER XIL 
 
 POVERTY AND HUMILITY. 
 
 A REMARK suggested to the father of German his- 
 torical philosophy by his examination of the monastic 
 spirit contains the matter of several volumes : 
 
 "A sentiment of tenderness seizes me," says the 
 profound Herder, "as I contemplate that sweet 
 seclusion, where souls, weary of the yoke and perse- 
 cution of others, find within themselves both rest 
 and Heaven ; but it is precisely for that reason that 
 our contempt for an isolation bom of selfishness and 
 pride manifests itself the more energetically — an 
 isolation which, shrinking from an active life, places 
 the destinies of mankind in contemplation, in apathy, 
 in penitences; feeds on phantasma, and, far from 
 extinguishing the passions, it foments the vilest of 
 them all — a tyrannical and indomitable pride. 
 Cursed be the excuses which some blind or perverse 
 interpreters of Scripture make for the celibate, 
 
' POVERTY AND HUMILITY. 155 
 
 as well as for that inert and contemplative life ! 
 Cursed be the false impressions which a fanatical 
 eloquence is still able to stamp on the young mind 
 after having for so many ages debased human 
 reason ! " 
 
 A burst of generous indignation ! That which I 
 am about to record here in reference to this will be 
 the humble but veracious commentary to it. 
 
 The land of Henry VIII. and of Shakespeare 
 possesses an expressive denominative which is wanting 
 to other languages. Priestcraft may be interpreted as 
 priestly guile, and proves that everywhere the clergy 
 is infected with the same vice. 
 
 Our tongue possesses another distinction : it ap- 
 plies the same denomination to the tradesman and to 
 the monk — both exercise a "professione." 
 
 To take a vow of poverty : what signification does 
 this bear at the present day ? One of two things : 
 either trafficking for lucre under the cover of the 
 cowl, or under that of the envied taxers of the public, 
 enjoying in undisturbed repose their own substance, 
 and also that of others. 
 
 How do nuns observe this solemn vow ? 
 
 The external dress, it is true, .is one of coarse 
 woollen serge ; but they wear beneath this the finest 
 linen, as they use handkerchiefs of the finest cambric 
 also. On feast-days they wear rosaries mounted in 
 silver, and frequently gilt. It is true the dress does 
 not make the monk. 
 
156 HENRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 The vow of humility forbids them to have bed' 
 steads with iron heads ; but that of poverty permits 
 them three mattresses of the softest wool, feather 
 pillows bordered with antique lace. The curtains, 
 sometimes superb, are suspended from a ring in the 
 ceiling. 
 
 They cannot openly display objects of luxury upon 
 their wardrobes ; but in a cupboard attached to the 
 wall they keep the most antique and costly porcelain. 
 They are not permitted to keep much money in their 
 own rooms ; but there is a place in the convent 
 called the " d6pot," where that of each person is kept 
 separately. 
 
 As to food : tbteir abstinence does not yield to that 
 of San Giovanni the " Faster." They eat of four 
 dishes at dinner, one of which invariably is pastry ; 
 and of one dish at supper. The bread is of the finest 
 quality. 
 
 It is forbidden to eat fresh fruit on Fridays. This 
 does not, however, prevent them from eating pre- 
 serves, jellies, &c., ad libitum. 
 
 They have the power to make a present of four 
 ducats in the month ; this, however, the Superior can 
 grant leave to increase to eight, the Vicar to twelve, 
 and, if it is desired to make it hundreds, the permis- 
 sion is applied for and granted in Rome. 
 
 Each nun has her particular patron saint, whose 
 day she celebrates as a high feast. This solemn 
 
POVERTY AND HUMILITY. 157 
 
 occasion requires many weeks of preparation, and 
 they try, in rivalry, to outvie each other in the 
 expense, contracting debts when they have not the 
 money, and wasting it in presents to the priests and 
 monks who say mass. 
 
 The same is done on their own birthdays ; nor is it 
 possible to recount the excesses and consumption at 
 Easter and Christmas. 
 
 But the primary occupation, the summa rerum of 
 the convent, consists in the production of sweetmeats. 
 
 This occupation in nunneries answers to that of 
 the hearth or stone of the hareem. Each nunnery has 
 its speciality, and its particular kind, for which it claims 
 celebrity. This one has a reputation for its "sfoglia- 
 telle," that one for its " barchighe," another for " pasta 
 reale," a fourth for its " biscottini," for " monacelli," 
 for " mostacioli." For a " sfoglitella" of the Carme- 
 lites of the Croce di Lucca, a Neapolitan of good 
 taste would forego the delicious pine-apple itself 
 
 Each nun has a right to the use of the oven for an 
 entire day, to make her pastry : the day may com- 
 mence from the preceding midnight. As this is not 
 sufficient for many, a second, and sometimes a third 
 day is required, the result of which is, that the poor 
 servants, during these culinary operations, are unable 
 to keep on their legs for want of sleep, and many fall 
 ill. I have heard more than one old servant say that 
 she had never seen the ceremonies of the Holy Week, 
 
158 HEN-RIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 never having been permitted time to go into the 
 choir, or look into the churcL 
 
 A monk, both erudite and eloquent, being the Lent 
 preacher one year, observed his audience lessen from 
 day to day as Easter approached (the nuns were occu- 
 pied with their pastry), until he was almost left 
 alone. Observing but six sisters upon one occasion, 
 he stopped in his discourse, and came down from the 
 pulpit, muttering — 
 
 " I did not come here to preach to the chairs ! " 
 
 In the distribution of this pastry, the relatives 
 always get the inferior share. The priests and con- 
 fessors, faithful to that precept (more than to any 
 other evangelical one) which says, " He that loveth 
 father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me. 
 If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and 
 mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and 
 sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my 
 disciple " — faithful, I say, to this precept, destroy 
 all parental affection in these women, persuading 
 their penitents that they themselves are father, 
 mother, brother, and sister, and life to them. Thus 
 isolated, they become more assailable by the influ- 
 ence of their spiritual father, who, in the mean time, 
 pockets the choicest and largest portion of the 
 sweets. 
 
 Under this head I am tempted to record some 
 instances of this anomalous dismemberment of family 
 attachment. 
 
POVERTY AND iiuiiaiTy. 159 
 
 Two nuns, sisters, were one day occupied in mental 
 oration in the choir, measuring their hour of prayer 
 with the sand-glass, as in the days of the Decameron. 
 These nuns had a brother employed in some diplo- 
 matic office. Their bell rang in the lodge, and their 
 servant ran to receive the message — one of fatal im- 
 port. The brother, compromised with the Govern- 
 ment, had put an end to his existence with a pistol — 
 having died instantly. 
 
 " What is it ? " asked they of the servant, who had 
 returned pale as death. " What is the matter ? " ' 
 
 " The servant of Prince . . . ." 
 
 "What does he want?" 
 
 " Your brother . . . ." and the maid stopped here. 
 
 "Is he ill?" 
 
 " Marame ! dead !" answered the girl. 
 
 " Madonna del Carmine ! How ! dead !" 
 
 "He has shot himself!" and she related the 
 message. 
 
 The two sisters looked at each other for a mo- 
 ment — then with consummate stoicism, 
 
 " Anna ! " said one of them. 
 
 " Camilla ! " repeated the other. 
 
 " His soul to glory ! The sand is running out, let 
 us finish our meditation." 
 
 Nothing more was said of the suicidal brother, with 
 'the exception of a passing remark at the dinner-table 
 between the soup and the fish, as the expression is. 
 
160 HENRIETTA CAEACCIOLO. 
 
 The announcement was made to a nun by letter 
 of the death of her sister. " Let no one know this," 
 she said to her servant ; "for I should be obliged to 
 fast, and I have no fancy to do this to-day, for I am 
 very hungry — me muorr defamme." 
 
 To return to the subject of the vow of humility. 
 I may say, that rare as white flies are the nuns who 
 do not make arrogant ostentation of their progenitors. 
 There are some convents where they will not receive 
 pupils unless they belong to families of the old 
 Neapolitan stocks. San Gregorio Armeno has been 
 from the remotest period consecrated to those of the 
 Porta Capuana and Nilo ;* and two girls, daughters 
 of a noble mother but plebeian father, were refused 
 admittance untU it was formally exacted that they 
 were to adopt the name of the former, repudiating 
 the patronymic. 
 
 In their discussions it was ever the subject of 
 dispute which was of better family. 
 
 " You had never anything better in yours than a 
 bought countship, and that a younger son. My great- 
 great-grandfather so-and-so quarters all the feudatory 
 
 titles : prince of , duke of , marquis of , 
 
 count of , and over and above was Councillor of 
 
 State to his Catholic Majesty and Grandee of Spain." 
 
 " That may be aU true ; but he came of bastard 
 
 * Streets in Naples where the palaces of the ancient uobility were 
 principally situated, the Qnartier St. Germain of Naples. 
 
POVERTY AND HUMILITY. 161 
 
 blood for all that, as every boy in the street could 
 tell you." 
 
 " And your pedigree ! "What a heap of blots there 
 is upon it ! " 
 
 There were those amongst them who arrogated to 
 themselves the precedence in everything, even to 
 their position on the Belvedere when a procession 
 was about to pass ; at their approach all others should 
 forthwith yield their places. Nor did they hesitate 
 to make others remove, should they be occupying a 
 position which they chose to have. 
 
 They sent word to a preacher somewhat inclined 
 to be cynical, and who had had the boldness to rate 
 them upon the tenor of their lives, that he must not 
 speak in that manner to them — the daughters of 
 Neapolitan princes, dukes, counts, barons, &c. The 
 Barnabite, justly indignant at that impertinent ad- 
 monition, took the opportunity one day, during the 
 delivery of a panegyric on St. Joseph, to advert in no 
 gentle terms to the message which these humble 
 servants of the Lord had sent him. 
 
 In fine, there are some convents where the Su- 
 perior has her knee kissed — in others her foot. 
 
 As to the ignorance of these Abbesses, in what 
 colours shall I depict it ? A man of the world can 
 with difHculty form an idea of the ingenuousness 
 with which they display it. One of them, bom in 
 Naples, and who had never stirred beyond the 
 
 M 
 
162 HENRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 suburbs of the city, affirmed to a knot of young nuns,, 
 that though she had not entered the convent until 
 she was thirty-two, she had never visited the Mu- 
 seum, nor put foot within the Theatre of St. Cario, 
 nor had seen the interior of the Villa Reale. Even 
 the very conspicuous and central temple of San Fran- 
 cesco di Paola was totally unknown to her. 
 
 In the estimation of the same person, all the 
 theories and discussions of archjeologists on the catas- 
 trophe of Pompeii was pure moonshine. Pompeii 
 was a city formerly inhabited by a sect of heretics, 
 who hammered to pieces in the middle of their forum 
 the miraculous statue of San Gennaro. The over- 
 hanging volcano, indignant at the sight of such pro- 
 fanity, belched forth instantaneously that deluge of 
 burning ashes which buried for ever the heretical city ! 
 
 I had been denounced before another Abbess as a 
 reader of mundane literature, or that irrelevant to 
 ecclesiastical subjects. A spy having informed her, 
 I was caught "en flagrant delit" by the Superior 
 with the book in my hand. 
 
 " \Yhat good book is this you are reading, my 
 daughter ? Let me look at it ! " said she. 
 
 There being no time to conceal it, I was obliged to 
 hand it to her, not without a lively disquietude con- 
 cerning my justification of such a possession. The 
 Abbess put on her spectacles, and having read the 
 title of it, restored me the closed volume, saying — 
 
POVERTY AND HUMILITY. 163 
 
 " ' The Memoirs of St. Helena.' Ah ! the life of 
 St. Constantius's mother ! How they are perpetually 
 calumniating this poor girl ! " 
 
 It was ' A Memorial of St. Helena,' and a little 
 later I satisfied myself that the eminent Superior of 
 San Gregorio was entirely innocent of the name and 
 fame of Napoleon the Great ! 
 
 21 2 
 
164 HENEIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 CHAPTEE Xm. 
 
 THE INSAOTTT OF NUNS. 
 
 The loss of liberty, the monotony of existence, the 
 frivolous nature of the daily intercourse and conver- 
 sation, and the superficial education of those nuns 
 whose life has been passed there from their infancy, 
 operate in such a manner that a third of the inmates 
 are either altogether fatuitous, or at least weak-minded 
 on some point. 
 
 This casualty, produced from the same causes, has 
 long been a marked feature of penitentiaries on the 
 solitary system. And if isolation be fatal to the 
 reason of the imprisoned in the less temperate cli- 
 mates of Europe, and the still colder ones of America, 
 how much more so should it be in hotter latitudes, 
 and most of all in volcanic regions, where man cannot 
 separate, without the most serious risk to his own 
 existence, from the necessity to maintain the mental 
 and corporeal faculties in permanent activity ! 
 
THE INSANITY OF NUNS. 165 
 
 No hygienic statistic of the cloister has yet been 
 organized. It would be a study fertile in useful 
 results. In the expectation of such a work, I may 
 be permitted to mark here certain cases, equally 
 worthy of the attention of Government as of the 
 curiosity of the public. 
 
 One nun, for some inexplicable reason, would never 
 touch paper. Her servant never stirred from her 
 side; and whenever she read the Service, the maid 
 turned over the pages. In like manner, whenever 
 she received a letter, it was opened, and held un- 
 folded before her until she had read it. In order, 
 therefore, to keep her own secrets, she was obliged to 
 have for servant one who had never even learned her 
 alphabet. Another, whenever she attended mass on 
 festas, would hold herself in a perfectly upright and 
 immoveable position as long as it lasted, and would 
 mutter sounds if she heard any noise. It happened 
 that a nun who was standing by her side once fainted 
 and fell on her shoulder. She never moved, and 
 would probably have allowed her to fall to the 
 ground if some others beside myself had not run 
 forward and supported her. I have known another 
 who when confined to bed had a habit of sticking 
 pins all round the sheets ; then would gather herself 
 up on the pillow, and remain fixed there, in order 
 not to spoil the marvellous symmetry of the bed. 
 
 The nunneries where is to be found the greatest 
 
166 HENRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 numljer of insane inmates are those of the " Rbmite, 
 whose horrible and truly Brahminical austerities con- 
 duce more readily to insanity. This living tomb was 
 founded by a bigot semi-alienated in mind, with the 
 approbation and under the patronage of the Church 
 of Rome. 
 
 I have already said (if the reader can remember) 
 that the servant of my aunt the Abbess caused me a 
 most disagreeable impression the first time I had met 
 her ; and in a few days I was confirmed in my idea 
 that this woman had - something unnatural in her 
 actions, as she had in her physiognomy. This Angela 
 Maria, entirely devoted to her toilet, neglected alto- 
 gether her duties to my aunt and to myself. She 
 allowed me to sleep in my bed for an entire week 
 without once making it, and treated my poor aunt 
 abominably. I had frequently repeated to this latter 
 that she should not tolerate this woman's conduct so 
 patiently, but she had replied that scolding her would 
 only expose her to the risk of being beaten by her. 
 Angela Maria confessed every Saturday, and would 
 pass no less than four or five hours in the confes- 
 sional on these occasions. On Wednesdays, after 
 having spent more than an hour at her toilet, she 
 would go down to the Parlatorio, where she would 
 remain for an equally long period in the interest of 
 her penitences with the confessor. On the evenings 
 fo such days she would become more eccentric than 
 
THE mSANITY OF KUNS. 167 
 
 ever, and my aunt always suffered increased ill-usage 
 at her hands. 
 
 I was much attached to my poor old aunt, and it 
 cost me much to see her so maltreated by this wretch, 
 but I had no one to appeal to, as she herself was 
 Abbess. I went nevertheless to the Prioress, and 
 requested her to submit it all to my orders. This 
 was granted me, and therefore she became the 
 common servant, having now no mistress. This 
 occurred during my noviciate ; and until I had taken 
 the veil this woman whenever she met me would 
 not raise her eyes to me, but endeavoured to pass 
 me or avoid me if she could, always muttering some- 
 thing between her teeth. On the eve of my taking 
 the veil, I was told that she had prepared a little 
 present, and that she wished to know if I would 
 accept it willingly (this was a customary act on such 
 occasions). I answered that I desired all the past to 
 be forgotten. 
 
 She came and presented her offering, and begged 
 pardon. 
 
 From that period she appeared completely changed ; 
 whenever she met me she would inquire affection- 
 ately about my health, was anxious to do anything for 
 me, and, if indisposed, would come into my room to 
 sit with me. 
 
 Nevertheless, her discourse perfectly sickened me, 
 and her equivocal expressions filled me with dread. 
 
168 HENRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 This discourse was ever on the subject of her con- 
 fessor, or her own personal attractions and good taste 
 in dress, and on the injustice my aunt's new servant 
 had done her in supplanting her and robbing her of 
 her " darhng girl." This meant myself. In fine, I 
 became every day more confirmed in the idea that 
 this woman's intellects were not in their normal 
 condition. 
 
 Some months later, and the malady declared itself 
 in its own horrible form. She would walk about at 
 night like a spectre ; she refused her food, and would 
 break out at one time into fantastical actions ; at 
 another, remain in a moody state, which would last 
 eight or ten days. As ill-luck would have it, her 
 madness took the form of considering herself my own 
 exclusive attendant, and all her former negligence 
 was transformed into overweening solicitude. Assured 
 of the malady which afflicted her, and which increased 
 daily, humanity would not allow me to be severe 
 with her. Fits of violence, however, commenced, and 
 I warned the Abbess (the frivolous pupil-mistress) 
 that she should be watched, for fear of harm to herself, 
 or others from her. Her answer was — 
 
 " Try yourself to quiet her in her paroxysms ; she 
 knows your voice." 
 
 " But," I replied, " I am not the keeper of mad 
 women — I cannot always look after her." 
 
 "Never mind — the Madonna will see to that!" 
 was the reply of this silly Superior. 
 
THE INSANITY OF NUNS. 
 
 169 
 
 The affair became every day more serious. In 
 defiance of all discipline, Angela Maria had allowed 
 her hair to grow, and thrown aside her veil and 
 " soggola," saying that she intended to quit the con- 
 vent to be married. 
 
 At another time, in spite of the excruciating pain 
 which she experienced in the occiput, she would con- 
 tort herself in ungraceful and awkward attitudes, or 
 dancing, twirling round, and filliping her fingers and 
 thumbs, in imitation of the rattle of the castanets, she 
 would chant with harsh and dissonant voice the 
 verses of this canzonetta, in Neapolitan dialect : — 
 
 ' Glu mk, ca echico non pozzo 
 Menk sola ste vita : 
 Jo voglio f ^ la zita 
 Me TOglio mmarefe. 
 
 ' Me faje fii viochiarelle, 
 Me faje jire a 1' acito : 
 Giu ma, voglio o' marito, 
 Mon pozzo sola sta. 
 
 " Si gik s'fe mmaretata 
 Teresa e Luvisella : 
 Peochi a me poverella 
 Me faje pafi accossi ? 
 
 " Lo fecatiello a fforza 
 S'a da 'nfela a lo spito : 
 Giu ma, voglio o' marito, 
 Non pozzo sola stk."* 
 
 The nuns are forbidden to sleep with the door of 
 their room shut, which shows a distrust little honour- 
 able to the brides of Christ. One night I awoke 
 
 * Oh, shut up here, I cannot 
 Endure this lonely life ; 
 I wish to do as other girls , 
 I wish to be a wife. 
 
 I'll soon be an old woman, 
 Not only old but sour ; 
 I want to have a husband. 
 Not pass these lonely hours. 
 
 Theresa and Luisella 
 (And I'm as good as they), 
 I'm left, and they are married. 
 Only the other day. 
 
 It's only with time and patience 
 The liver is forced on the spit ; 
 But time and patience do it, 
 And a husband I will get. 
 
170 HKNRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 feeling a rough hand placed on my forehead. Think- 
 ing I had only dreamed it, I went to sleep again. 
 The next night I again felt myself touched ; some 
 one kissed me ; I started from my sleep and saw 
 Angela Maria, who said to me — 
 
 "Don't be afraid, it is I." 
 
 " What is it you want ?" 
 
 " Nothing. I cannot sleep." 
 
 Gaetanella, my servant, slept in my room, and was 
 very difficult to waken. When I, frightened by the 
 insane woman, shook her, she muttered through her 
 teeth, "Why don't you drive away that wretch?" 
 and turning over, fell into a profound sleep. 
 
 These nocturnal apparitions became more and 
 more frequent ; my room was in a state of siege. 
 Gradually the mad woman made me the victim of 
 her insane watchings. Drawing back the curtains of 
 the bed, she would seat herself half-naked on the 
 chair, and talk in the wildest manner. I soon came 
 to undarstand that the subject of her madness was 
 the violent love she entertained for her confessor. 
 
 I often begged the Superior to find some remedy 
 for all this. Worn out by the frequent interruption 
 of sleep, and unnerved by incessant apprehension, I 
 found myself falling ill. 
 
 The Abbess, without troubling herself further, 
 would answer, " The Lord will help you ! " 
 
 One morning while matins were being chanted in 
 
THE INSANITY OF NUNS. 171 
 
 the choir, a servant called out the aunt of the two 
 pupils ^Paolina's friends). She left the choir, and 
 shortly afterwards returned very pale, asking per- 
 mission of the Superior to absent herself from matins 
 to go in aid of her nieces, who had been attacked 
 by Angela Maria. 
 
 The Abbess made a sign to me to approach her, 
 when she bade me go and tranquillize her. I obeyed, 
 not however without having reminded her to find a 
 remedy for this evil. 
 
 Angela Maria had locked herself into her room, 
 and refused to open the door. 
 
 I wished to ascertain what she had done to the 
 pupils, and directed my steps thither. Paolina, who 
 was standing near the door of the room they had 
 taken refuge in, seeing me approach, said to her 
 friends, — 
 
 "Here is the person who told Angela Maria to 
 beat you ! " 
 
 At this apostrophe the two scholars rushed forth 
 from the room like a pair of unleashed mastiffs, and 
 launched a torrent of abuse upon me. 
 
 This unjustifiable suspicion brought me to a sudden 
 stop; already suffering for many days, I had no 
 strength to support, me in this unlooked-for wrong, 
 and I fell to the ground in convulsions. 
 
 My voice, which in the moans of this nervous 
 attack Angela Maria had recognised, catised her to 
 
172 HENRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 open the door, and she came out in her chemise. 
 The moment she saw me on the ground she violently 
 thrust aside those who surrounded me, and with 
 herculean strength she took me in her arms and 
 carried me off to my room, depositing me on the bed. 
 When I had suflSciently recovered to be able to 
 speak, I rated her soundly for her conduct. At first 
 she listened to me weeping, then a violent fit seized 
 her, and she tore her chemise to pieces, remaining 
 perfectly naked ; finally rushing out, she shut herself 
 again in her room. 
 
 Paolina's words and imputation had given me a 
 mortal wound. Though the hatred of the younger 
 nuns was nothing new to me, I resolved to make no 
 further sacrifice of myself for these people. My 
 detestation of priests and monlis had made them all 
 my enemies. 
 
 I took advantage of the moment that the mad- 
 woman had shut herself into her room to have my 
 bed transferred into that of my aunt. Angela Maria, 
 having conceived a great aversion to this room, would 
 never enter it. 
 
 In about an hour, half-dressed, she opened her 
 door. She went into my room, which was separated 
 from hers by four other rooms. Not finding either 
 myself or my bed, she uttered frantic screams, and 
 seizing a sharp-pointed knife ran about yelling 
 firightfuily, " Have they killed my girl ? I will slit 
 
THE INSANITY OF NUNS. 173 
 
 their throats, every one of them, like hens in a 
 coop !" 
 
 I did not stir. The nuns who were in the dormi- 
 tory when this occurred, in terror shut themselves in. 
 The others ran to the Abbess, who sent to beg I 
 would go to her. 
 
 "Dear Henrietta," she said when she saw me, 
 " you alone have the power to remedy this misfortune 
 which has occurred to the convent." 
 
 " How so, Reverenda ? " 
 
 " None of the nuns dare sleep in the second story 
 to-night where the mad woman is. Now, dearest, 
 have your bed brought back to your room, and let 
 Angela Maria's be taken there too, and you can 
 keep her with you and prevent her from getting 
 out." 
 
 " This is too much, your Reverence ! " I cried, 
 deeply indignant. " No ; I cannot do it. I am ill. 
 Besides, the woman's insanity has reached that degree 
 now that she no longer recognises my voice ; and 
 they attribute what she does in her violent moments 
 to my instigation ! " 
 
 " Tut, tut ! don't mind the tittle-tattle of every 
 silly person. Both myself and the sisterhood will 
 feel most grateful to you." 
 
 I still held out. The Abbess concluded, "You 
 have taken the vow of obedience. It will be better 
 for you to obey me." 
 
174 HENRIETTA CAKACCIOLO. 
 
 Despotic as this injunction was, I bowed in 
 obedience. 
 
 I ascended to the second story, where I found 
 Angela Maria, knife in hand, walking up and down, 
 and talking to herself. My God ! what a horrible 
 sight it was ! She was a wild beast — a fury. Her 
 wild protruding eyes were rolling in their orbits, and 
 seemed ready to start from her head ; her hair 
 matted, her mouth contorted and foaming, her nostrils 
 swollen with rage, her arm raised ready to strike the 
 first who should come. 
 
 I stopped at the dormitory door, with my hand 
 upon the key, ready to lock her in, in case she did 
 not recognise me, and might attack me. I was alone, 
 for no one would come with me. 
 
 I called her ; she turned and knew me, and ran 
 towards me with open arms, still holding the knife. 
 I shut the door, and turned the key. On seeing me 
 do this, she began to yell and cry. I said to her, — 
 
 " Throw away the knife — it frightens me." 
 
 She obeyed. When I heard it fall some distance 
 off, I opened the door. The mad woman seized my 
 hand, held it tight in both of hers, and covered it 
 with kisses. 
 
 The condition she was in filled me with compassion. 
 Taking possession of the knife, I scolded her for what 
 she had done. She promised me she would never do 
 it more. 
 
THE IirSANITY OF NUNS, 175 
 
 She took me to her room ; I made her open her 
 boxes herself, and I took other knives out of it, and 
 also scissors. The poor creature obeyed me without 
 a word. 
 
 Having done this, I told her she was to pass the 
 night in my room. On hearing this, she gave herself 
 up to the wildest exultation, clapping her hands and 
 laughing incontrollably. Her bed was carried into my 
 room in a moment — a proceeding which gave great 
 offence to Gaetanella. This woman suffered much 
 from scurvy (a disease of frequent occurrence in the 
 imperfectly ventilated a.tmo.<!phere of the cloister). 
 The blood which issued from her gums was believed 
 by her to be the effect of ha2moptosis, and attributed 
 to the state of perpetual tribulation in which she was 
 kept by that " cunning and dissimulating Angela 
 Maria." 
 
 Night came on ; it was the month of August, and 
 the bell for silence rang at eight o'clock. I went to 
 bed. Gaetanella and Angela Maria did the same ; 
 the latter promising to remain quiet. 
 
 It was pitiful to hear her ravings, her restlessness, 
 her constant turnings. I asked her what was the 
 matter. 
 
 " I cannot stay in bed," she said ; " my head burns, 
 my ears are ringing.'' 
 
 She rose, opened the window, and drew in a long 
 breath when she felt the coolness of the night-air. 
 
176 HENRIETTA CAEACCIOLO. 
 
 The poor mad creature walked backward and forward, 
 uttering incoherent sentences. She cried and laughed 
 and yelled in turns. Finally she returned to her bed 
 and fell asleep. 
 
 Overcome with all I had gone through, I could 
 hardly support myself After shutting the window, 
 I returned to bed, and fell also into a deep sleep. 
 
 After some time a violent palpitation again awoke 
 me. There was profound stillness in the room. I 
 raised the bed-curtain to observe what the mad 
 woman was doing. The bed was empty. I looked 
 in every direction ; she was not to be seen. I got out 
 of bed and put on a dressing-gown. Angela Maria's 
 clothes were lying on a chair, her shoes were under 
 the bed. I put my head outside the door, but the 
 corridor was perfectly empty. I went out trembling, 
 and entered her room — it was empty. I entered a 
 second dormitory of immense length, Ht at each end 
 by a half-spent lamp, which only seemed to increase 
 the darkness, looking like two sepulchral lights. 
 Humanity rather than duty urged me forward. 
 
 The dormitory terminated with a well on one 
 side, on the other an immense empty chamber, un- 
 inhabited by reason of its great size. This room 
 inspired horror even in the day-time — frescoes of the 
 worst style covered the walls, representing anchorites, 
 saints, and hermits, with long spare faces of cada- 
 verous hue and thin straggling beards, which the 
 
THE INSANITY OF NUNS. 177 
 
 nuns asserted had been known to leave the walls 
 and move about, and even speak ; had rung the bells 
 and chanted mass at midnight. My limbs trembled, 
 partly from a superstitious dread, which few are free 
 from under similar circumstances ; but more because 
 I feared to find Angela Maria dead in some place 
 where the darkness would have made this still more 
 terrible. I was about to turn into this room when 
 I perceived something white move in the vicinity of 
 the well. It was the mad woman, who, in a state 
 of utter nakedness, shoeless and dishevelled, was 
 bending down, and with hands upon the parapet 
 looking into the well, and in the act of precipitating 
 herself therein. To give a ciy and dart forward was 
 but an instantaneous act with me, and I seized her 
 arm with both my hands. She now no longer 
 recognised me or my voice, but struggled violently, 
 biting me severely to loosen my hold, and, being much 
 stronger than myself, would have effected this, had 
 not the idea of humiliating her suddenly occurred to 
 me — I gave her a violent box on the ear. The blow 
 seemed to recall her to herself for a moment, and she 
 burst into tears. I then took her by the hand, and 
 led her back without any difficulty to my room. 
 There she threw herself on the ground, and broke 
 into moans for some hours. Finally becoming some- 
 what calmer, she resumed her chattering. 
 , As soon as it was light I wrote to General Saluzzi, 
 
 N 
 
178 HENRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 requesting him to come to me, and I recounted the 
 whole affair to him. He went directly to the Canon 
 Savarese, who at that time was acting as Archbishop 
 (for Cardinal Caracciolo had shortly before died). He 
 made a strong remonstrance to him on the manner in 
 which I had been treated — having been made to act 
 as keeper to the insane. 
 
 In a few hours the Doctor Cosimo Meo arrived, 
 sent by Savarese to examine the state of the mad 
 woman. As soon as he beheld her, though still at a 
 distance, he exclaimed, — 
 
 " She is not only mad, but in the furious stage. 
 Send for some one to bleed her." 
 
 Eight of the strongest of the servants hardly suf- 
 ficed to hold her during this operation. Nor was a 
 single drop of the blood received in the basin em- 
 ployed — being thrown in jets in every direction in 
 the room. Ice was then applied to her head ; and by 
 the express wish of Savarese, on the representation 
 of Meo, she was confined in a solitary cell, having 
 been sent in the escort of a keeper to Calvizzano. 
 
 A priest kept an establishment for the insane 
 there. The means employed did not avail in this case ; 
 and after a confinement for some time in the iron 
 cell, and indescribable suffering, the unhappy creature 
 breathed her last. 
 
 This circumstance had but increased my abhor- 
 rence for the nunnery, for it displayed stiU more 
 
THE INSANITY OF NUNS. 179 
 
 visibly to me the selfish and unfeeling habits of the 
 monastic state and the little conscientiousness of nuns, 
 who never hesitated to sacrifice me provided their 
 own repose was not disturbed, and if they could save 
 the expense of a care-taker of the insane by putting 
 this most' repugnant office on me. 
 
 It was not long after the exit of Angela Maria that 
 a similar and equally fatal case occurred. 
 
 Under my direction in the laboratory was a lay 
 sister named Concetta, a fellow townswoman of the 
 poor mad woman, both being from Afragola. She 
 was about thirty-six years of age, of great beauty, 
 tall, and well made, with auburn hair, and eyes like 
 those of a fawn, of perfect teeth and complexion ; 
 one feature only hindering her from being a type of 
 almost perfect beauty, — ^hernose was somewhat too 
 aquiline. 
 
 She was exact in the fulfilment of her duties, but 
 somewhat vain and coquettish. 
 
 I had often observed her in the long summer days ; 
 during the hot hours whilst others slept, she would 
 sit at a little window which looked into the street of 
 St. Biagio de' Librai. This circumstance, joined to 
 having observed a marked intimacy with a young 
 porter attached to the convent, made me think she 
 was not altogether content with her state, and would 
 have willingly embraced the opposite condition. 
 
 The misfortune of her countrywoman made a strong 
 
 N 2 
 
180 HENEIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 and unhappy impression upon her, and whenever any 
 allusion was made to it she would stare wildly with her 
 large eyes until she became perfectly frightful to look at. 
 
 For some months it did not go beyond this ; only 
 the insanity which was taking root assumed another 
 form — that of melancholy. She wept frequently ; 
 never laughed ; had no memory for the directions I 
 gave her ; confusing the drugs, and asking a thousand 
 questions about the streets of Naples, of the happiness 
 of those who enjoyed themselves there, and many 
 similar things. 
 
 For the relief of my conscience ia my quality of 
 Infermiera, I warned the Abbess that Concetta's 
 state demanded attention, requesting her to assign 
 me another assistant in the Pharmacy ; as this one 
 confounded the medicines together, losing the whole 
 day in changing them from one bottle into another, 
 altering the labels, &c., so that I did not wish to be 
 responsible for any serious mistake which might 
 occur. The inefficient woman replied, — 
 
 " Do you know now that you are a bird of very 
 ill omen?" 
 
 I was silent ; nor did I ever again allude to the 
 subject of Concetta. 
 
 A few days later the sister of this latter, a peasant, 
 asked to see the Abbess. She had perceived the in- 
 sanity of her sister, and she now begged the Superior 
 to give some attention to it. The Abbess took no 
 
THE INSANITY OF NUNS. 181 
 
 further notice of this request, than to commend her 
 to the protection of the miraculous Virgin del Idria, 
 head patroness of the convent. 
 
 After this an old lay sister, who slept in the same 
 room with Concetta, discovered her endeavouring to 
 strangle herself with a handkerchief ; her cries, how- 
 ever, prevented her accomplishing this. 
 
 " I will order the Litany 'Ora pro ea ' to be recited 
 forty times for her this evening," replied the Abbess, 
 when this attempt was reported to her. 
 
 One Sunday morning before sunrise many of the 
 nuns were attending mass. In order to reach the 
 communion it was necessary to descend a long stair- 
 case which led into a small damp court, surrounded 
 by a narrow corridor, but one of great length, and 
 supported on pilasters. Above this was a terrace. 
 When about half-way down I heard a heavy dull 
 sound like that of a body falling. I covered my face 
 with my hands, for, without seeing her, some presenti- 
 ment told me it was Concetta. I hurried forward, 
 and beheld the unfortunate creature on the ground 
 motionless. 
 
 When I reached her I thought she was dead, and 
 I called aloud for help. 
 
 More than forty nuns were at that moment in the 
 communion who had heard my cries, but no one 
 stirred. At last one came down the stairs and ap- 
 proac'aed. We raised her from the ground, but she 
 
182 HENRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 was senseless. I then rang the bell of the sacristy, 
 and summoned a priest to help. 
 
 Her right leg was frightfully lacerated. She had 
 precipitated herself where some of the cement had 
 from age fe,llen away from a pilaster, leaving a jagged 
 and irregular surface. Two porters carried her into 
 her room, the priest accompanying them-. 
 
 After a short period she recovered consciousness, 
 and made a sign that she did not wish this latter 
 near her. He retired. 
 
 The spot where Concetta had precipitated herself 
 being quite close to the church, the nuns, as they left 
 the communion while Concetta was being conveyed 
 away, began to scream and talk so loud, that those in 
 the church became aware that something had hap- 
 pened in the convent. This suspicion increased as 
 they saw the priest enter hurriedly. One woman got 
 hold of the circumstance, and conveyed it to another ; 
 the news spreading with exaggerated comments and 
 deviations altogether from the truth — the least being 
 that the nuns had thrown one of their companions 
 from above into the court. 
 
 Two hours later an inspector of police, with two 
 other functionaries, made their appearance to inquire 
 into the case. The Abbess tried to prevent the en- 
 trance of these " profane " individuals ; but they were 
 firm, and insisted upon entering. 
 
 " You know very well, sir, that without the express 
 
THE INSANITY OF NUNS. 183 
 
 order of the Holy Father I am forbidden to admit 
 any one whomsoever within the cloister, were it the 
 sovereign himsel£" 
 
 " And you, reverend madam, should not be ignorant 
 that public order takes precedence of any commands 
 you may have received from Rome." 
 
 " You confound me ! In what manner do you 
 infer that public order has been infringed in my 
 convent ?" 
 
 " There is a report that a lay sister has been pre- 
 cipitated from the second story with malicious in- 
 tention, and has been frightfully maimed ; and there 
 are not wanting persons who impute this foul act to 
 your Reverence." 
 
 Picture the consternation of the Abbess ! With a 
 profusion of bows she bade them enter, and conducted 
 them herself into the presence of Concetta, who had 
 by this time somewhat recovered her reason after the 
 shock received. She underwent the examination with 
 admirable self-possession, and testified to the fact 
 that she alone had thrown herself from above, urged 
 by irrepressible desire for death. When asked for what 
 reason she, brought up in religious observances with 
 more care than seculars, should thus make an attempt 
 on her life, she uttered a deep groan, and essayed to 
 reply ; but whether from inability to express herself, 
 or that she had repented of what she had done, she 
 
184 Henrietta caracciolo. 
 
 remained silent. She then commenced yawning in a 
 manner which threatened to dislocate her jaw, star- 
 ing wildly about her, and, having rudely thrust back 
 the hand of the inquisitor, she relapsed into insanity. 
 
 The inspector, having taken the depositions, de- 
 parted. 
 
 On the Abbess's conscience, however, must have 
 lain the burden of this catastrophe, for it was clearly 
 her duty to have appointed a watch and guard over 
 the actions of this woman, who for many months ha-d 
 shown such unequivocal symptoms of mental aberra- 
 tion. In a little closet belonging to her were found 
 a rope fixed across it and fitted with a noose, also a 
 paper containing poison : it was only the mode of 
 death which had not been decided on. 
 
 Later in the day the Cardinal Riario Sforza, who 
 had lately been appointed to the See of Naples, 
 arrived. He reprimanded the Abbess severely for 
 having allowed the affair to transpire, and the police 
 to get in. 
 
 "Do you not know," he said, "that worldlings 
 believe that all who are in convents are in a state of 
 despair, and repentant of the life they have chosen ? 
 You, allowing this circumstance to become known, add 
 weight to their calumnies. If the cloister be not a 
 real tomb, as the holy canons desire it should be, 
 why should it bear the name of such ? The living 
 
THE INSANITY OF NUNS. 185 
 
 should never know the inmost and recondite scenes 
 of the sepulchre." 
 
 The unfortunate Concetta lingered for twenty days, 
 her leg having mortified. ' I never left her side, ex- 
 cept for the morning and evening summons of the 
 bell. I gathered from her incoherent words that the 
 poor creature was in a condition she wished to hide 
 by death. She would not permit the priest to ap- 
 proach her, nor would she confess. The weak-minded 
 nuns, fully convinced that she was " possessed," sent 
 for a " red-cross order " monk for the purpose of 
 exorcising the demon. His exorcism, performed with 
 imposing solemnity, had no effect, much to my dis- 
 appointment. I should have been curious to see the 
 evil one. , The nuns, with open mouths and incessant 
 signing of themselves, stood around, awaiting the exit 
 of the fiend of darkness, but in vain, it was not yet 
 time. 
 
 The confessor could only get entrance to the room 
 to repeat a prayer at the moment she breathed her 
 last, and when she had no longer the strength or the 
 consciousness to expel him thence. 
 
 Her beauty, which had entirely disappeared during 
 this privation of reason, then resumed its place on 
 the inanimate remains. What serenity then reposed 
 upon features up to that moment transformed by in- 
 sanity and altered by inward suffering ! She died at 
 
186 HENRIETTA CAEACCIOLO. 
 
 sunset. A ray of the declining orb, passing across the 
 window, came like the angel of death, tremulously 
 touching the golden points of her tresses. In another 
 moment that messenger of divine mercy had flown. 
 
 I scattered the leaves of a handful of crimson car- 
 nations upon her lifeless remains. 
 
CONVENT THIEVES. 187 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 CONVENT THIEVES. 
 
 Let us imagine a band of thirty malefactors, who 
 having stopped, beaten, and despoiled you, hold a 
 consultation as to whether they should not also 
 take your life ; would there not be found perchance 
 amongst these one less sanguinary than the rest, 
 who should desire that your life be spared ? And if, 
 instead of thirty, there were fifty or sixty, would not 
 the increase be in your favour ? Suppose, then, that 
 troop composed of a hundred or five hundred indi- 
 viduals, I would wager ten to one that your life 
 would be spared. Out of such a number it would be 
 impossible that one should not be found willing to 
 save you from an unjust doom ? 
 
 I cannot cite a clearer example than this to show 
 that vice and malevolence more readily find refuge 
 in little than in extensive communities. " Woe 
 be to him that is alone ! " says the Scripture. Selfish- 
 
188 HEyKffiTTA CARAC!CIOLO. 
 
 ness has its abode in a part of, but not throughout all 
 humanity ; and Adam, created in the image of God, 
 symbolises the whole of mankind, rather than an 
 individual. The convent encloses within its walls all 
 the vices of the city, without possessing the virtues or 
 advantages of this latter. In proportion as modem 
 civilisation progresses in the path of liberal associa- 
 tion, just in the same degree the monastic commvmity 
 assumes the form of a tolerated camorra. For the 
 honour of truth, I will acknowledge that there are 
 to be found nuns exemplary in every respect, and 
 worthy of reverence ; but their number is so small, 
 that it is lost sight of in the immense majority of 
 the evil doers. To the female monastery may be 
 justly applied that expression in Ecclesiastes, " One 
 man among a thousand have I found, but a woman 
 among all these have I not found." 
 
 Thieving is a common vice in convents. I could 
 not have believed this, had I not been an inmate 
 therein, and learned this through my own experience. 
 It was therefore to my no small astonishment, on the 
 first day of my entrance, that a lay sister hinted to 
 me, under her breath, that I should not leave un- 
 watched on the drawers a box of confectionery which 
 had been given me, as it would be a miracle if I ever 
 saw it again ! I thought she alluded to the rapacity 
 of some of the numerous workpeople, porters, car- 
 penters, &C., occupied in the convent, whom I had 
 
CONVENT THIEVES. 189 
 
 observed ; but after a few days' residence I became 
 aware, to nay intense disgust, that the thieves were 
 the nuns themselves, and that it was absolutely 
 necessary to keep everything under lock and key, 
 from the bread to the needle. If the Abbess looked 
 to the solidity of the cloister lock, it behoved each 
 nun to keep guard over her own particular one. 
 
 At one period this vice had taken such root that 
 not a week passed without a theft. A pupil having 
 forgotten her key in her drawer, five piastres disap- 
 peared from this. A coffee-service of another had 
 every silver spoon abstracted. A rosary with medal- 
 lions, which had been left in the choir, was stolen 
 from thence. A servant deposited a tunic on a chair, 
 whilst she went to fetch the money to pay the dress- 
 maker : at her return it was gone. A silver holy- 
 water recipient, which stood at the head of my bed, 
 was stolen from myself. I preferred losing that much- 
 valued family relic rather than increase the number 
 of my enemies, and I said nothing about the loss. On 
 another occasion, a napkin, with a broad lace border, 
 was abstracted from me ; but, as I had already mani- 
 fested some suspicions of the thief, it was left in a 
 corridor with the initials half-picked out. 
 
 It is to be observed that these thefts occurred pre- 
 cisely in places where workmen, &c., had no access, 
 and on Sundays, when these or artisans were excluded. 
 Towards the evening of a Saint's-day, feeling some- 
 
190 HENRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 what indisposed, I had retired to my room, and I lay 
 on my bed. When the bell for silence was about to 
 be rung, I heard loud cries issuing from the stoiy 
 beneath, together with a running backwards and for- 
 wards in the corridor of the nuns. Sudden deaths 
 being of frequent occurrence in the convent, it imme- 
 diately occurred to me that a misfortune of that 
 nature had befallen some one. I got up, and, dress- 
 ing in great haste, was proceeding to see if all was 
 well with my old aunt, when I met the blind 
 nun, who was leaning on her servant, and weeping 
 bitterly. 
 
 "Oh, what horror! what horror!" she repeated, 
 with a gesture of repugnance. 
 
 " What mean all these cries, Aunt Constance ? " I 
 asked anxiously. 
 
 " What, do you not know of the sacrilege ? what 
 horror ! They have robbed the Madonna del Buon 
 Consiglio ! " 
 
 " Is it possible ?" I returned. 
 
 " True as that judgment wUl overtake them." 
 
 I entered the choir, and found in fact the little 
 altar of the above-mentioned Virgin despoOed. A 
 painting by a master hand with a broad frame was 
 enclosed within a glass case, some six inches larger, 
 and always kept locked. In the space between the 
 glass and the picture some bouquets of silver flowers, 
 of no mean workmanship, were deposited. The lock 
 
CONVENT THIEVES. 191 
 
 had been forced, and these flowers, together with the 
 silver crowns of the Virgin and Child, were wanting. 
 Not content with these pious offerings, the thieves 
 had likewise carried off other valuable objects, such 
 as earrings, rings, diadems, necklaces, and other 
 jewels, leaving the canvas all perforated with the 
 little nails or pins by which the above ornaments 
 were attached. It was a melancholy spectacle, this 
 vandalised image all perforated and torn through the 
 hurry to escape. 
 
 On the morrow the Superior sent for the Vicar, 
 and summoned also the functionaries of the convent, 
 not omitting the mistress of the servants. I unfor- 
 tunately filled this office, together with that of Infer- 
 miera and chemist-officer of the conventual hierarchy, 
 which, to say the truth, brought me some little 
 benefit, as I took the opportunity to obtain a super- 
 ficial smattering of materia medica, and some clinical 
 knowledge. 
 
 The Vicar enjoined me to summon every servant to 
 the Refectory, with the exception of those whom any 
 illness or infirmity freed from suspicion. They were 
 sixty-two in all. 
 
 These women, whom Christ in His infinite mercy 
 selected as spouses from amongst those descended 
 from Adam, certain that there existed no power to 
 dismiss them after they had once pronounced the 
 vows, behave with the utmost insolence to the choral 
 
192 HENRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 nuns, and always with impunity. With the excep- 
 tion of a few who obeyed, shedding tears of mortifi- 
 cation, all vented on me the most abusive language. 
 One of these said, — 
 
 "Haven't you got a pair of hands as well as I? 
 Who knows that you are not the thief yourself ? " 
 
 "You will do better," I answered, "to keep such 
 remarks for those of your own class." 
 
 " We are all chips ofif the same block," she replied 
 with a sneer. 
 
 Prudence kept me silent. It required an hour to 
 collect the Community into the Refectory, partly by 
 entreaties, partly by threats. 
 
 The Vicar, who in the mean time had been clo- 
 seted with the Abbess, enjoined her to keep this 
 scandal close, as the affair of the police was still 
 fresh; citing, as I learned afterwards, the maxim, 
 " Wash your soiled linen at home." 
 
 But his admonition to the sisters, when ushered 
 into his presence, was of another kind, and severe to 
 their hearts' content. I shall not readily forget it. 
 
 " Your convent," he cried, " is become a ' Bosco di 
 Bo vino,' * where barefaced robberies are committed: 
 there, at least, there are no Madonnas or saints to 
 rob." He then interdicted the Communion to the 
 thief, and, in the name of the incensed Virgin, en- 
 
 * The Forest of Bondy of Naples, a wood in the vicinity of 
 the city. 
 
CONVENT THIEVES. 193 
 
 joined the Immediate restitution of the stolen objects, 
 hinting at the possibility of a solemn ecclesiastical 
 censure for the entire Community. 
 
 Some began to cry, some were indignant, one 
 fainted, others quitted the Refectory, mimicking the 
 face and gestures of His Eminence. On the following 
 morning, by universal concert, all took the Commu- 
 nion, and two days later was found upon the de- 
 spoiled altar six ducats. As this sum did not 
 constitute a twentieth part of the value of the things 
 stolen, it was supposed to be an instalment of its 
 future restitution ; but time went on, and either the 
 matter cooled or the thief gave herself no further 
 trouble to deposit a second payment. There only 
 remained then in the minds of the majority the dis- 
 agreeable conviction that the theft could not have 
 profited the perpetrator if the same had not had 
 accomplices both within and without the convent. 
 
 One hundred ducats were found missing from the 
 desk of the Depot (I have elsewhere spoken of this 
 convent money-box). This sum had been set apart 
 to the formation of an annuity to defray the ex- 
 pense of lighting a lamp before the image of the 
 Immaculate. 
 
 In making up the accounts of her abbesship, my 
 aunt found a deficit of several thousand ducats in the 
 cash-box of the Communita. The poor woman could 
 not comprehend this enormous deficiency; she had 
 
 
 
194 HENRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 never kept the key herself, but had intrusted it to 
 the secretary and to other old nuns. Nor was any 
 light erer thrown on this transaction, which caused 
 her such chagrin as effectually to shorten her life. 
 
 Another class of robbery practised in the nunnery 
 was the scandalous profit derived by the nuns in their 
 traflBc with medicines and confectionery. 
 
 I have elsewhere mentioned that I acted as chemist, 
 but in this office I was in reality only the assistant of 
 an old nun, who, owing to her advanced age, seldom 
 came down into the laboratory, and satisfied herself 
 by sending me her orders through her servant. 
 
 I remained for five years in this occupation, con- 
 tinually making remonstrances on the excessive prices 
 charged, which should for every reason have been 
 lower than the sums charged by the public chemist, 
 as we neither had to pay the rent of shop, nor the 
 expense of lighting, nor assistants, nor to give presents 
 to doctors ; besides, we should not have had a view 
 to gain, but reciprocally humane motives. 
 
 I made the most energetic protests upon being 
 ordered to charge twelve grana* the ounce in retail- 
 ing a medicament which I myself had purchased for 
 the convent for four carlini a pound, that is to say, a 
 quadrupled profit on the wholesale article — a usury 
 of 80 per cent. 
 
 * JO grana make a carlino, equal to 4d. English, 
 
CONVENT THIEVES. 195 
 
 I miglit add a quantity of similar abuses and 
 misdeeds committed during the period of my abode 
 within the different nunneries, and which remained 
 unpunished, as well from the amour propre of caste 
 as from want of a judicial police. The priorate, the 
 wardrobe, the catering, the agencies, and other 
 branches of administration — what endless corruption 
 do they not conceal ? But need I weary the cour- 
 teous reader further with an account of such unpa- 
 latable matter ? To give a wide but correct idea of 
 the abuses of every kind which infest the convents 
 of both sexes, it is enough to remember that, under 
 the past government, theft and camorra transuded, 
 so to say, copiously through all the pores of Nea- 
 politan society. Starting from the throne, it tra- 
 versed the sanctuary and diffused itself throughout 
 the arteries of the' underlying population. To whom 
 is not known the answer of King Ferdinand to that 
 Minister of State who had the courage to denounce 
 to him the peculations of an eminent functionary 1 — 
 "It is true, he is a rogue and a thief ; but, for all 
 that, he is a good Christian." 
 
 This family linen is too foul ; let us turn over the 
 page. 
 
 2 
 
196 HENBIETTA CAEACCIOLO. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 ACOLYTES. 
 
 With the exception of the republic of San ilaxino, . 
 every state, however small, has its capital ; and there is 
 no capital which does not contain its two descriptions of 
 edifices — one sacred to devotional purposes, the other 
 dedicated to purposes of relaxation. Now, the con- 
 vent, which forms a little republican state, placed 
 under the high dominion of the Holy See, has also 
 its metropolis, furnished, no less than the others, with 
 sacred functions, and its dramatic entertainments. 
 
 The metropolis of the convent is the ChurcL Two 
 parts, two separate functions, every one attached 
 to the service of this Church must know how to 
 perform — one that of a holy ministrant, the other 
 that of a dramatic performer. 
 
 We have spoken enough of the dramatic mission, 
 of the confessional, and of the dualistic doctrines of 
 confessors; let us make now a slight digression on 
 the theatrical department of the acolytes. 
 
ACOLYTES. 19T 
 
 Four youths, aspirants to the priesthood, were 
 annexed to the establishment for the service of the 
 ChurcL As soon as they should take holy orders 
 they would have to quit this service, being no longer 
 allowed to remain there ; and having the necessary 
 studies to go through, they are, therefore, replaced 
 by others. 
 
 The younger the luckier. These young men had 
 their protectresses .in the convent — and the protection 
 of a nun is worth something. Several rich persons 
 and Neapolitan ecclesiastics had bequeathed from an 
 early period, in favour of San Gregorio Armeno, for 
 the purpose of founding patrimonies, chaplaincies, 
 and dowers, and purposes of benevolence. These 
 youths, then, were fortunate if they could secure the 
 good graces of the despotic ones of this sisterhood, 
 who dispensed these benefices at their will, for they 
 were sure to come in for patrimony or chaplaincy ; 
 and in such case the protectress invariably defrays 
 the expenses of the ceremony itself. One, whom 
 I remember, having become, "Dei gratia," priest, 
 had not only his expenses paid, but, having managed 
 to insinuate himself proportionably into the heart of 
 the nun-patroness, she caused him to be fetched on 
 the day of the ceremony in her family-coach, with 
 gala liveries and appointments, and sent to his house 
 a sumptuous banquet for twenty-four persons. The 
 Abbess approved these unbecoming prodigalities — , 
 
198 HENRIETTA CARACCIOLO, 
 
 nay, would encourage them, saying, " I myself have 
 done the same — amuse yourselves, my poor girls; 
 faith, it has been always done ! " 
 
 At the same time, in under tones, she would cau- 
 tion them not to let me see anything of this. They 
 were aware that I did not approve of their mode of 
 acting ; my strictness was a great restraint on them ; 
 and they would often break off their conversation at 
 my approach, and in sending the above better dinner 
 they endeavoured to do it clandestinely, so that its 
 expensiveness should escape me. 
 
 It was the custom during the Holy Week to deco- 
 rate a portion of the choir magnificently, to comme- 
 morate there the ceremony of the feet-washing. The 
 symbols of the Passion were placed on the altar, toge- 
 ther with all the private plate of each of the nuns, 
 and an incalculable number of candles. 
 
 The four acolytes, who were dying with holy 
 curiosity to be spectators of this spectacle, would wait 
 until the church was closed on the night of Holy 
 Thursday, and until I myself had retired to my room. 
 They would then place a long ladder against the 
 screen of the choir, above the high altar, and, mount- 
 ing by it, would seat themselves on the projecting 
 cornice, and keep up a prolonged conversation with 
 the nuns, their particular friends. Knowing of this 
 project from the day previous, I took care to retire 
 to my room, to leave them at liberty. 
 
ACOLYTES. 199 
 
 I had now been almost eight years in the convent, 
 and they had been unable to discover in me the 
 slightest sympathy for priest, mgnk, or acolyte, not 
 even for my confessor ; who still, notwithstanding the 
 annoyance I manifested at it, managed under this or 
 that pretext to make me come down to the Commu- 
 nion almost daily. Not that I wished it to be 
 thought that my heart had become estranged to love, 
 or that I wished to judge austerely — a rigid Cato — 
 those who love. Not so ! I disapproved of the hypo- 
 crisy and the wish to seem virtuous ; and the vin- 
 dictiveness with which they persecuted any unlucky 
 one who by any rare chance had conceived a predi- 
 lection for any one who was not either priest or of 
 sacerdotal calling. I detested this selfishness of caste, 
 these feignings. I abhorred their condition in oppo- 
 sition to the laws of nature ; I abhorred their mode 
 of thinking. If they had frankly confessed that they 
 entertained an affection for this or that priest, this or 
 the other friar, I could as frankly have shared my pity 
 with them, as it had often happened to some young 
 sister, or pupil, or servant, who had opened her heart 
 to me ; I could have pitied her with a heart pron'e to 
 all human sentiments. My own still beat under the 
 coarse serge ; it was -ever the same susceptible one 
 which had already loved and suffered much. I was 
 once on the brink of rekindling its smouldering fire. 
 God gave me help to suppress this ; a passion would 
 have only made me more wretched. 
 
200 HENRIETTA CABACCIOLO. 
 
 A medical man whom in my quality of Infermiera 
 I frequently met and accompanied through the wards 
 was the object of this unrevealed attachment : he did 
 not perceive it, and did not correspond to it. As I 
 accompanied his steps in his frequent rounds, with 
 eyes cast on the ground, and the feeling of abdication 
 I had made to every tender emotion, I felt that, 
 under the vow of monastic chastity, I should only 
 have been an object of contempt in his eyes if a 
 single look had betrayed me. Ah ! those who have 
 not put on the sackcloth know not how deep to the 
 cries of the heart is the isolation of the cloister. He 
 knew nothing of my struggles to subdue those re- 
 bellious palpitations : he therefore knew not that I 
 triumphed. I learned afterwards that his heart was 
 elsewhere. He died in the prime of life. 
 
 After two years passed in the capacity of Infer- 
 miera, I was nominated to the oflB.ce of Sacristan. 
 This duty, more than any other, brings the mm in 
 contact with the priests. It was the opinion then of 
 the great portion of the sisters, that it would end 
 with my falling in love with some one of them, and 
 a conspiracy was formed of the most active of them 
 sworn to make me fall. 
 
 The Sacristan whom I replaced, in handing me 
 over the duties of the oflSce, told me that three of 
 these acolytes were unpunctual, and that I should 
 employ rather the one who was most exact. This 
 
ACOLYTES. 201 
 
 was an excellent woman, and I followed her advice. 
 In the mean time the conspirators watched my move- 
 ments with anxiety, in the expectation that I should 
 fall sooner or later into their trammels ; and the pre- 
 ference which I accorded to this one soon gave them 
 this hope. Though he was a youth most uninterest- 
 ing in every respect — in person, education, and condi- 
 tion of life — he served their purpose ; and they made 
 every efifort to bring about their design. They 
 naturally began with him, the weaker side. What 
 iniquity does not idleness engender ! Some one of 
 the association would find every day some excuse to 
 go down to the Communion, and say to the acolyte — 
 " Now you must be satisfied that you have got a 
 young and active Sacristan, eh ? " or, " It seems the 
 Sacristan likes you very much, for she always calls 
 you and intrusts all to you." 
 
 I have mentioned elsewhere that I suffered much 
 from nervous attacks : these became almost periodical 
 with me. Whenever I was ill they would call him, 
 and, with the shamelessness of low women, give him 
 my remembrance. On one occasion they gave him a 
 love-letter in my name, and at another stole a small 
 object out of my room, which they conveyed to him 
 under the same title. 
 
 The youth began to give way. 
 They once told him that I was very ill : he began 
 to cry, unable to conceal his trouble. 
 
202 HENRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 " It is all up with him ! " said they amongst 
 themselves, rubbing their hands, and chuckling with 
 delight. 
 
 I soon became apprised of the grotesque passion of 
 the young man, and, discovering the embroglio of the 
 love-letter and the false gift, I turned on the intrigu- 
 ing nuns with the most energetic denunciations, and 
 showed him how he had been imposed upon, and 
 demanded a restitution of the objects. He would not 
 give them back. 
 
 He did not conceal his passion from me. I re- 
 proved him frequently, but I had no means of avoid- 
 ing being seen by him, as my duties obliged me to 
 speak to him. He would reply that he had not 
 strength to subdue a passion which the nuns them- 
 selves had fostered. The fact was, that the poor 
 creature was really deeply enamoured of me. His 
 face had become like a lantern, his nose pointed, his 
 eyes sunk ; his mouth, naturally large, had, from his 
 excessive loss of flesh, taken the proportions of that 
 of a lizard. I reproved him without mercy. " You 
 idiot," I said to him, " do you not see that you have' 
 become the tool of a bevy of nuns no less sUly than 
 designing; who, while they amuse themselves with 
 your simplicity, are on the look-out for a still greater 
 advantage — that of annoying me ; and further still, if 
 possible, of sinking my reputation here to a level with 
 their own? Recover. yourself, overmaster this silly 
 
ACOLYTES. 203 
 
 passion, and from henceforth use more discretion in 
 the discharge of your duties, if you do not wish to 
 lose both your bread and your reputation." 
 
 To this he replied that he had not strength to subdue 
 a passion which had reached such a degree of intensity. 
 
 " In that case, there is but one resource," I re- 
 turned ; " a hard one, it is true, and inevitable." 
 
 " Speak ; your counsel shall be a law to me." 
 
 " The jests of these women are perfect tiger's paws : 
 to-day they play with your simplicity, to-morrow they 
 would dig your grave. Listen to my advice. Seek a 
 living in some other church, and bring me at the 
 earliest moment your resignation." 
 
 The dry and hard tones of these words of mine 
 contrasted with the internal feeling of pity which this 
 occurrence gave rise to in me — an occurrence which 
 tended to deprive the poor wretch of his bread. 
 
 This interview, which hardly lasted ten minutes, 
 and terminated by a flood of tears on his part, was 
 interrupted by the arrival of the Church Sacristan. 
 Convinced, however, that the nuns were concocting a 
 nefarious scheme, and much grieved to ruin the pros- 
 pects of the poor youth, whose principal fault was 
 that of being somewhat stultified, I fixed on a plan 
 for remedying this more consistent with humanity. 
 
 I went to the Abbess and begged her to appoint 
 another Sacristan, as I was not fitted for that office. 
 She refused to do so on the plea that there existed no 
 
204 HENRIETTA CAKACCIOLO. 
 
 precedent of a nun's resigning her office before the 
 expiration of a year. My confessor, whom the aSair 
 displeased, added his entreaties. She would not 
 yield. Irritated one day by my reiterated applications 
 on this subject, she said, " In fine, why do you wish 
 to give up the office ? Is it because some silly woman 
 says you are in love with the clerk 1 What a goose 
 you are ! Haven't they done this before, and will 
 they not always do the same ? If you have a grain of 
 sense, you will pay no attention to this tittle-tattle." 
 
 Things progressed in this way until the episode 
 arrived at a spontaneous dissolution. One day, whilst 
 I sang in the choir, the love-sick chierico fainted in 
 the church from the emotion. The church was 
 crowded — the confusion great, the priests in the 
 sacristy in a state of commotion, and the chierici 
 enjoying the scene ; the nuns, as the mask had 
 fallen, began to launch their arrows at their victim, 
 and broke out with, " The stupid creature ! what an 
 idiot ! how absurd ! the holy mass is turned into 
 a farce ! these scenes are a disgrace to the convent." 
 
 I shortly afterwards found the young man in a 
 flood of tears. " We are all foiu: dismissed. My God, 
 what win become of me ! " he exclaimed, as well as 
 his sobs would permit him. 
 
 " All four dismissed ! have you then dragged the 
 others into your own ruin ? " 
 
 " No ! the ruin is only for me ; the others go only 
 
ACOLYTES. 205 
 
 for appearance ; they will be taken back again ; I am 
 the only one who will never return." 
 
 " I am astonished that they have dismissed you 
 with even so much urbanity," I concluded. " I am 
 truly sorry for you, but your situation in this place 
 had become insupportable." 
 
 The inhabitants of volcanic regions are full of 
 fire as their wines are, and I am a Neapolitan. 
 Inflamed with indignation, I went at once to the 
 Abbess. 
 
 " Had you accepted my resignation, when I urged 
 it on you with so much earnestness," I said, with 
 considerable vivacity, "you would not now be driven 
 to put in force a provision which redounds as little 
 to the interest of your convent as it does to that of 
 these poor youths. What is done cannot now be 
 undone. One explanation only remains for me to 
 ask of you, and this regards my own personal dignity. 
 Is it real, positive, or only a blind, this general dis- 
 missal of the chierici ? In other words, have you 
 not reserved the intention to recall, after a little, 
 three of them, to inflict exclusion on one only ? " 
 
 "No!" she returned, "Heaven forbid! the dis- 
 missal shall be general and definitive." 
 
 " Have you sufficient firmness to stand against the 
 machinations of the nuns who protect these others ? " 
 
 We were at the moment close to a chapel dedicated 
 
206 HENRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 to the Virgin. The Abbess, turning towards the 
 image, raised her hand and said, — 
 
 " I swear by the most holy Maria, that not one of 
 them shall return." 
 
 " And I swear that, if they do, I will leave a place 
 where I am shut up with such ruthless enemies," was 
 my rejoinder. 
 
 We parted in peace : but the poor woman was 
 one more of words than deeds ; she was calculating 
 the votes which were indispensable to her in her 
 re-election as A'bbess — eight days later three of the 
 chierici returned. Nor did the intrigue end here. 
 The conspirators made an attempt likewise to blacken 
 my conduct. To what wUl not cloister perfidy 
 stoop ! 
 
 That one of these four acolytes who was expelled 
 was denounced to the Cardinal by the confessors and 
 monks of the church itself; who, with an equal 
 solicitude to pander to the wishes of his creatures, 
 obliged him to quit the clerical dress altogether. 
 
 The Abbess had broken her oath. I would keep 
 mine faithfully. 
 
 From that day I fixed unchangeable and im- 
 movable in my soul the resolution to quit a place 
 where the machinations and the gall of envy were 
 so rife. 
 
CHIARINA. 207 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 CHIARINA. 
 
 The moral sufferings and incessant agitations I 
 had gone through, the coercive action of" the cloister, 
 the sedentary life, the unhealthy atmosphere of the 
 convent during the winter months, and above all the 
 intrigues of which I had been the victim, had affected 
 my health too seriously for me not to look for some 
 means of safety. In this interval my favourite sister 
 Josephine died, she who above all others was wont 
 to compassionate my misfortunes. The grief to have 
 been unable to bestow a last embrace, and even to 
 see her before she quitted this world, caused me 
 to feel only the more repentant of avow so opposed to 
 my nature. My position, too, was somewhat changed. 
 I had now reached my majority. I could consider my- 
 self disposer, sicut in quantum, of myself, possessing 
 a small annuity. I could make choice of another 
 asylum less coercive and more suitable to my disposi- 
 
208 HENRIETTA CARACaOLO. 
 
 tion than the cloister, if I did not wish to have 
 recourse to the hospitality of my mother's second 
 husband. She had become seriously grieved at seeing 
 me reduced almost to despair, nor did she conceal 
 some remorse of conscience at having immured me in 
 the cloister. She promised me then her co-operation 
 in any attempt of mine to procure a greater or less 
 enlargement, and kept it faithfully. 
 
 My position in the cloister also was somewhat 
 different. A malady of a few days' duration had 
 carried off my aunt — she who had officiated as 
 Abbess for so long a period. 1 had taken into my 
 service a young girl who had shortly before entered 
 the convent, a native of a small town in the vicinity 
 of Naples. Although her family had gone to consi- 
 derable expense in entering her, and she had not yet 
 begun to feel the nostalgia of her liberty, she had 
 conceived such an attachment to me, that she pro- 
 tested every day she was ready to follow me wherever 
 my lot should lead me. 
 
 In the neighbourhood of my prison was a house, at 
 one of whose windows I frequently observed a young 
 religieuse in amicable intercourse with her relations. 
 I examined her again and again — I scrutinized her 
 dress. There was no doubt she belonged to some 
 cloister — not to that class of bigots denominated 
 Monache di Casa. By what means had she re- 
 covered the inestimable boon of recrossing the 
 
CHIARINA. 209 
 
 paternal threshold ? The desire to gather anything 
 relating to this portent gave me the most lively 
 solicitude. After long researches I learned finally 
 that she was a cloister nun of Nola, and had been for 
 a considerable time out of the convent, for which she 
 had given satisfactory reasons ; and renewing her 
 leave of absence every six months, was enabled to 
 effect an indefinite prolongation of it. What a ray of 
 hope for me in the darkness of my prison ! Why 
 should not I seize on such a precedent, which haply 
 Providence had sent to my despair, and tread the 
 same road? Was not the shattered state of my 
 health true — was it not evident — was I not subject 
 to nervous attacks, to convulsions which were under- 
 mining my constitution ? 
 
 Fat, fresh, even rosy, full of life and spirits, were 
 the greater portion of my companions ; absence of 
 care, idleness, selfishness, apathy, fattened them as 
 the coop fattens fowls. I on the contrary only be- 
 came the more pallid and declining ; my cheeks 
 became hollow, my eyes dim; my hair fell out in 
 handfuls. 
 
 One of the physicians of the convent drew up a 
 certificate for me. This, together with a memorial, 
 I despatched to Rome. So certain had I made 
 myself of its successful issue that I had begun to 
 count the hours and minutes which yet remained for 
 me to suffer. I would say to myself— now is the 
 
 p 
 
210 HENRIETTA CAEACCIOLO. 
 
 courier delivering my petition — now Pius IX. is 
 reading it witli favourable intention — at this moment 
 the favour is being granted — the paper sealed — 
 delivered to the respective authority — despatched to 
 Naples — in two days the courier returns — this is 
 Thursday — on Saturday morning, Farewell to you 
 all. 
 
 Ah ! how long must these two days seem ! 
 
 The Canon was greatly disturbed at the step I had 
 taken, and endeavoured to weaken the- poesy of my 
 hope with every blow which the scepticism of his 
 logic and the cynicism of his profession could help 
 him with. He did not fail to make a strong com- 
 plaint to the Abbess of the atrocious conduct of the 
 nuns, adding — 
 
 " My penitent is a person of firm resolve, though 
 few words ; be sure that if she has said that she will 
 leave this place, she will do so." 
 
 " St. Benedict will not allow it. "Whoever has 
 once put on his dress will never leave this, dead or 
 alive," replied the poor woman. 
 
 Solicitous as I was to leave this odious place, there 
 was, nevertheless, one powerful motive of regret that 
 I should leave behind me. This was a young girl 
 in whom my interests were strongly concentrated — 
 a girl whom I loved like daughter or sister. She 
 belonged to a family in easy circumstances in Naples, 
 and had been placed in my charge shortly before the 
 
CHIARINA. 211 
 
 above occurrences. Chiarina, such was her name, 
 had been confided at first to an aunt, a nun of 40 
 years' standing in the convent, and at that time in 
 second childhood from age. The servant of this lady 
 (a woman of brutal character) acted for both aunt and 
 niece. The former, aware of the tyrannous disposi- 
 tion of this woman, asked me to take charge of 
 her, every pupil having a nun assigned to her as 
 mistress. She was 16 years of age, but looked hardly 
 10 — a seven months' child — her existence was a 
 miracle. On losing her parents she was left with 
 two brothers^ the younger of whom was pursuing his 
 studies in a distant city. The elder was obliged to 
 be constantly travelling in the interest of the business 
 in which he was occupied. 
 
 Beautiful as an angel in face, she was unfortunately 
 deformed in person, and in delicate health. She had 
 aneurism and dilatation of the heart, which had en- 
 larged the cordial region, and suffered likewise from an 
 obstinate cough and continued palpitations, which ren- 
 dered her respiration very distressing. Her mind was 
 as fair as her face, docile, confiding, and artless — 
 above all endowed with a prudence which I, her elder 
 by many years, could never imitate. 
 
 This child inherited two misfortunes in the cloister, 
 over and above those I mention. One was having 
 me as her mistress ; the second, that of having a 
 servant who acted, I will not say as a stepmother, but 
 
 p2 
 
212 HENRIETTA CABACCIOLO. 
 
 as a tyrant to her. As I was hated by the younger 
 nuns, she, for the sole reason that she was under my 
 care as pupil, was likewise hated. As to the servant, 
 she was a monster of inhumanity, a wild beast in 
 human form. As the child was rather wealthy, this 
 woman was determined she should take the veil, for 
 no other motive than that she might perpetuate her 
 possession of her, accustoming her gradually to her 
 despotic dominion. The malady of her young 
 mistress, however, formed an obstarjle to this ; for it 
 was necessary to conceal this from the eyes of all, 
 lest the nuns should exclude her from the Chapter. 
 
 How was she to hide her cough and distressed 
 respiration ? By dint of intimidation and perpetual 
 scolding. If she heard her cough she would revile 
 her in the most plebeian manner, even stopping her 
 mouth with her hand. She would not permit her to 
 ascend the stairs leisurely, hut forced her up a hun- 
 dred steps without allowing her to take breatL The 
 lividity of her face and her gasping respiration showed 
 her suffering. I never failed to admonish this 
 creature with the utmost severity, but Chiarina told" 
 me that my scoldings only increased her maltreat' 
 ment when this woman found her alone. 
 
 It had occurred to this Megsera to try to straighten 
 my pupil's body, the better to conceal her deformity ; 
 and for this purpose forced her to wear a pair of 
 stays stiffened with iron rods. Every morning the 
 
CHIARINA. 213 
 
 poor child, with face of deathly hue, and faint voice, 
 would entreat me when alone in the novice's room, 
 "Aunt Henrietta, for pity's sake unfasten my stays ! 
 I am dying." Unfastening these, 1 retained her 
 with me during the day ; but was obliged to lace 
 them tightly again at evening. She would tremble 
 at the very thought of this woman. 
 
 The surgeon of the Communita, Signor Gianspietro, 
 had requested me to watch over the girl, having a 
 paternal attachment for her as he had attended her 
 mother in her confinement. His interest did not 
 meet the views of the servant, and Chiarina was 
 by her bidden to avoid him. One day the surgeon 
 was seated in the porter's room waiting for me 
 to attend him in his rounds in my capacity as 
 Infermiera. Chiarina passed that way, taking her 
 hand he seated her on his knee. I arrived at that 
 moment, and gave him some account of her health, 
 which became daily worse. Resting one hand on 
 her shoulder, he placed the other 'on the region of 
 the heart to observe its beating ; in doing so his 
 hand came in contact with the iron rods. 
 
 "What is this hard substance in her stays 1" he 
 asked. 
 
 The child turned red, and answered — "It is 
 nothing." 
 
 I made him a sign to proceed in his examina- 
 tion. When he had loosened the band of black 
 
214 HENRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 serge, and exposed the stays, he started to his 
 feet. 
 
 " It is iron ! what infamous wretch has done this ? " 
 
 My servant answered — " Chiarina." 
 
 " Call this woman." 
 
 Chiarina, trembling, entreated me to calm him. 
 I showed him the child's distress ; then turning to 
 the portress, and others of the nuns who were 
 present, 
 
 " Murders," he said, " are committed not with 
 daggers and poison only — it is equally murder to 
 have put those stays on that girl : in compressing 
 her heart you kill her." 
 
 These words were thrown to the winds. Chiarina 
 was still made to wear the iron rods. I wrote to 
 her brother to say that leaving his sister in the 
 convent was but dooming her to death. He came 
 at once to Naples, and Chiarina made preparations 
 to leave. She was grieved to part from me. I 
 assured her that I myself would not remain longer 
 in the convent — thinking that my request to Rome 
 would meet with no obstacle. 
 
 She left, and the younger nuns offered candles 
 to the Virgin, as a thanksgiving for her departure. 
 
 The poor child had no other fault than that of 
 being my friend. 
 
 It was winter: the cold of the Abruzzi, whither 
 her brother was obliged to return, was highly pre- 
 
CHIARINA, 215 
 
 judicial to her health ; and, as time makes us forget 
 in some measure past sufferings, she thought she 
 should still be better in the convent than travelling 
 about with her brother. In a few months she 
 returned to Naples, and asked to re-enter. I pointed 
 out the indiscretion of this. I reminded her of her 
 sufferings, and counselled her to choose in preference 
 some asylum where she could live independently, 
 and have the servant of her choice. She replied — 
 
 " I wish to be with you." 
 
 " But I am going to leave San Aregone Armeno." 
 
 "You say so, but who knows if you will be 
 allowed. Months have already passed since you 
 said you were prepared to go." 
 
 On the day appointed for the Chapter to give 
 their votes for her re-admission, I determined to 
 put my conscience at rest ; and, in the act of giving 
 mine, I raised my hand to let aU see that I deposited 
 a black ball in the box. The Chapter carried her 
 admission by the votes of the elder nuns alone ; the 
 younger had unanimously negatived it. She re- 
 entered, and soon repented of the step she had 
 taken. She told me, that in order to hide her 
 cough she was obliged to endure almost suffoca- 
 tion by placing her head beneath her pillow. One 
 morning the woman went to waken her; she called, 
 and received no answer ; she shook her, there was 
 no movement. She was dead ! 
 
^16 HENKIETTA CAKACCIOLO. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIL 
 
 CARDINAl BIAEIO. 
 
 Six months after the death of Caracoiolo, his pre- 
 decessor, and after the vicariat of Savarese, Cardinal 
 Riario Sforza was raised to the archiepiscopal see 
 of Naples. Too young for the position, of limited 
 acquirements, and altogether deficient in prudence 
 and experience, he had obtained this post through 
 the influence of his uncle, who in that golden age 
 of Papacy directed Pope Gregory XVI.'s will according 
 to his own. 
 
 In order to give him the thinnest possible varnish 
 of episcopal responsibilities and duties — of which he 
 was altogether innocent — they had kept him for 
 the six previous months in the bishopric of Aveola. 
 Shortly after Pope Gregory had presented the pre- 
 cious gift to the capital of Ferdinand II., who 
 cordially thanked him for it, he died. Mastai Fer- 
 retti succeeded him in the Holy See. 
 
CARDINAL EIAEIO. 217 
 
 All know what consummate hopes Pius IX. gave 
 on his first coming to the Pontificate. He was not 
 liberal in reality, but, after the example of Aristides 
 the Just, he wished to be thought so. The dreams 
 of the Pygmalions of Italy, hitherto placid, were now 
 disturbed by terrible phantoms ; its afflicted popula- 
 tions were opening their hearts to legitimate aspira- 
 tions, and already a council was spoken of to decree 
 the absolving of monastic vows, vows which three 
 centuries earlier the Trent Council had defined. In 
 this interval my petition for leave to quit the convent 
 had been despatched to Eome. 
 
 Cardinal Eiario, desirous on the outset of his 
 government to appear as a zealous prelate, had paid 
 frequent visits to our convent ; and it was always 
 after having held a lengthened interview with the 
 Abbess, and another nun, an eminent dissembler, 
 and who might in reality have been styled the 
 Superior, for nothing was done without her assent, 
 that the whole sisterhood was summoned to pay 
 their respects to him. 
 
 I had always made my entrance together with 
 the others, but had kept in the background — allowing 
 those to take the foremost places who liked to court 
 attention, or who wished to address some compliment 
 to him. 
 
 Intrenched within my reserve, I had ample oppor- 
 tunity to observe that he was deficient in a most 
 
218 HEXEIETTA CAEACCIOLO. 
 
 important point — education. It was easy to see 
 that the time he had passed for the great object 
 in Rome had been spent in anything rather than 
 study. He had learned in Rome the pasquinade 
 to imitate the Romans in their sarcasm only, but 
 he lacked their acuteness and ready wit which seize 
 the occasion so happily — for a " mauvais plaisant," 
 there is little difference between llaiforio and " Pul- 
 cinella." 
 
 Affecting a solemn demeanour which sat Ul on 
 him, he would sometimes attempt to utter an allocu- 
 tion or admonition : it was extremely difficult to seize 
 what he intended to imply by his diffuse quid pro quo, 
 ideas inaptly appended together, terms and forms of 
 speech altogether mal-^-propos, obscure and confused 
 constructions. Although inexpert in speaking, and 
 stiU more in writing his native tongue, yet he was 
 bitten with the vanity of passing for a Latinist, and 
 would make his discourse a farrago of Latin proverbs ■ 
 and biblical phraseology. I fear, indeed, that he 
 had retained but little of his Limen Grammaticum 
 learned in the Holy City, if I may except his aptness 
 in conjugating the present and the future of a single 
 verb in it, the verb " to love." This too is the opinion 
 of two-thirds of Roman society. 
 
 Riario at that period passed for a handsome man — 
 " De gustibus," &c. It was undoubted that at each of 
 his visits he would send the younger Benedictines 
 
" CARDINAL lUARIO. 219 
 
 into fits of ecstatic admiration of him. When he had 
 left the parlour they would assemble in fluttering and 
 excited groups, descanting on and summing up all his 
 endowments material and spiritual, one trying to 
 outrun the other in her panegyrics on these. "Is he 
 not handsome ?" one would exclaim ; " what a fascinat- 
 ing expression ! what a model of a hand !" Another 
 would interpose, " What learning ! a mouth distilling 
 honey !" I said to myself, he has only learned to pose 
 himself with effect. In fine nothing was thought of 
 in the convent for many days and nights after these 
 visits but the sweet savour of his words ; and those 
 to whom these odorous bouquets were particularly 
 presented would redden, tremulous with emotion and 
 pleasure. 
 
 I had never spoken to him, nor courted his obser- 
 vation. I had felt one of those insuperable antipa- 
 thies to him, which are not easily explained. 
 
 Desirous, on one occasion, of exhibiting his polite- 
 ness, he sent the sisterhood a large basket of straw- 
 berries. The nuns presented his postman with a 
 piastre, and were profuse in their eulogiums of the 
 new Head, as they styled him. This delicate atten- 
 tion, however, transpired by some means, and coming 
 to the ears of some wag, he determined on adding a 
 farce to the comedy. 
 
 A few days later a second present arrived. A 
 porter, accompanied by a servant bending under the 
 
220 HENEIETTA CAEACCIOLO. 
 
 weight of an enormous fish covered with orange 
 boughs, arrived at the convent. In presenting this 
 enormous mass which they called a sturgeon, the 
 servant poured forth, in the name of his Eminence, 
 an interminable torrent of compliments. As on the 
 previous occasion the servant received his piastre, 
 the porter two carlini. The nuns crowded in the 
 Porteria were in ecstasies, and those who more espe- 
 cially appropriated the compKment to themselves 
 were loud in their proposal to fee the liveried mes- 
 senger still more liberally. At this juncture the 
 house steward (account keeper) arrived. 
 
 " Do you know, Don Giuseppe, that his Eminence 
 has sent us another present ? You must write another 
 letter of compliments and thanks in the name of 
 the Communita." 
 
 " Indeed ! " cried the steward in ecstasy ; " and 
 what has he sent — a fish 1 — and such a fish ! there will 
 be enough for the servants too ! " 
 
 " And some left after that ! " was cried in chorus. 
 
 The leviathan was dragged near the door, and the 
 steward put on his spectacles ; he viewed it from head 
 to tail, made them turn it and return it, and then 
 fell into meditation upon all he knew of ichthyology ; 
 then he spoke : 
 
 " Do you know, my Lady Abbess, and your Reve- 
 rences, that this strikes me to be a fish for a museum 
 — a fish you won't like the eating of." 
 
CARDINAL RIARIO. 221 
 
 " How SO ! liow SO ! Don Giuseppe, my good man, 
 you are dreaming." 
 
 " Well ! let some sailor see it." 
 
 Whilst the sisters stood around gaping and ex- 
 claiming "Gesu! Gesu!" a fisherman from the 
 neighbouring Piazza del Purgatorio arrived, and had 
 no sooner cast his eyes on the present than he cried — 
 
 " It's a porpoise ! throw it out." 
 
 " I told you it was a museum monster," echoed 
 Don Giuseppe. 
 
 It is impossible to picture the mortification and 
 rage of the nuns. The joke came to the Cardinal's 
 ears, who then saw that gallantry was a little more 
 expensive in Naples than in Kome, and he abstained 
 from any further public demonstration of his par- 
 tiality for the sisters. 
 
 On a subsequent occasion, in paying his visit to 
 San Gregorio, and remaining as usual closeted with 
 the Abbess and her shadow, the other nun, whilst 
 the sisters were waiting with the usual impatience to 
 be summoned, my signal was given on the bell. I 
 descended to the portress's room, where I found the 
 Abbess who at that moment had quitted the parlour. 
 
 " The Cardinal wishes to speak with you," she said. 
 
 My heart gave a bound. My thoughts at once 
 recurred' to the petition which I had sent to Rome 
 two months previously. 
 
 The Cardinal was alone, reclining in an arm-chair 
 
222 HENKIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 At the first glance I perceived that he was " got up " 
 ■with much care and attention, and a delicate perfume 
 of eau de Cologne diSiised itself from his person 
 throughout the circumambient atmosphere. 
 
 I knelt, as is the practice, or rather malpractice, 
 before the purple. Raising his hand, he gave me his 
 blessing ; and then looking long and fixedly at me, 
 spoke in gentle and mellifluous accents — 
 
 " You have preferred a request to the Holy See for 
 permission to quit the cloister ? " 
 
 " Yes, your Eminence," I answered in a tremor as 
 much of hope as fear. 
 
 " And for what reason ? " 
 
 " Motives of health." 
 
 An ironical smile passed across his features; he 
 regarded me attentively, and then added — 
 
 " You do not look like a person in bad health." j 
 
 " Yet, God knows I am so." 
 
 " What do you suffer firom ?" 
 
 "From nervous attacks — from convulsions," I 
 replied. 
 
 " Who is there that does not suffer from nervous 
 attacks ? — all women have convulsions ! Hysterics ! 
 hysterics ! nothing more. You nuns are still more 
 Eubject to them than seculars." 
 
 After a brief silence I resumed — " My request was 
 accompanied by a medical certificate." 
 
CAKDINAL RIAEIO. 223 
 
 "I have no trust in medical meu — they are all 
 more or less impostors." 
 
 " It was given on oath," I rejoined. 
 
 " Doctors make oaths in such cases without much 
 difficulty — they are all infidels, all perjurers." 
 
 I was .silent. After another pause he resumed — ■ 
 
 " Your petition has been remitted to me from the 
 Holy See, for all petitions sent from my diocese are 
 returned to the Ordinary to verify the motives of the 
 petititioner, and to receive his assent. It is therefore 
 in my possession. Now, to prevent you from enter- 
 taining any vain hopes, I must inform you that I 
 withhold my assent." 
 
 I was thunderstrack ! Observing my excessive 
 perturbation, he desired me to be seated, and soften- 
 ing the tone of his voice, which had assumed a hard 
 accent in the concluding phrases — 
 
 "I have just now," said he, "had some conversation 
 with the Superior, and she informs me that your 
 motive for desiring to get out is not bad health, but 
 the affair of the chierici." 
 
 I now saw fully through the part the Cardinal had 
 taken in that matter. At this reminiscence of it 
 raised by himself, the blood flew to my face, and I 
 fixed on him an eye of indignation. 
 
 " Your Eminence," I cried, making a supreme effort 
 to suppress the agitation which had seized me, "your 
 
224 HENRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 Eminence should be above such low and Ignominious 
 intrigues " 
 
 " Don't agitate yourself," he replied, interrupting 
 me. " I do not attach any importance to that stupid 
 affair, because I understood that nothing positive 
 passed between you and him. Would a noble — T 
 mean a nun like you — ^level herself with a simple 
 chierico ? However, put it altogether out of your 
 head — the idea of obtaining permission to quit the 
 convent — it is absurd." 
 
 Cold as a piece of marble, I fearlessly rephed to 
 him that I did not believe that God and the Holy 
 Father and his Eminence could by common consent 
 decree my death by the prolongation of my imprison- 
 ment. 
 
 Interrupting me, he changed the conversation, and 
 detained me long on irrelevant and trivial subjects ; 
 then suddenly rising — 
 
 " I will come more frequently to see you," added 
 he : " put yourself more forward, and give me the 
 satisfaction of knowing that you have entirely dis- 
 missed from your mind the temptation of a return to 
 the evil of the age. Do you understand now ? Ca- 
 pissi J a ! 
 
 I returned to my cell and gave myself up to 
 despair, which was only increased by the sarcastic 
 titterings of the nuns. I shunned them all. As soon as 
 I had fulfilled my duties as Infermiera and those in 
 
CARDINAL EIARIO. 225 
 
 the choir, I retired by the shortest way I could find 
 to my room, where I read, or worked, or meditated in 
 tears ; and where, more to form a distraction, than 
 from any desire to publish them, I first commenced 
 scribbling these memoirs. Maria Giuseppe, my faith- 
 ful attendant, the sole companion of my solitude, 
 never left my side but for urgent services ; and, less 
 experienced than I was in priestly malignity and 
 dissimulation, sought ever to give me comfort through 
 the wildest and most chimerical hopes. I could only 
 make response with a deep sigh in the Dantesque 
 apostrophe of Asti's poet — 
 
 " . . . . stripe malnata e cruda 
 Che degle altrui perigli all'ombra ride." 
 
 My mother was equally inconsolable ; the more so 
 as she learned from me that other nuns who suffered 
 much less in health than I did, obtained that which 
 was denied to me. The Canon tried in vain to appease 
 me, I gave myself up to the most unbounded despair. 
 
 I drew up another and more energetic instance, and 
 despatched it to Eome. 
 
 Faithful to his promise, Riario came more fre- 
 quently to the convent. Every time the bell sum- 
 moned the sisterhood to the parlour, I felt a shudder. 
 To avoid that unpalatable encounter, what would I 
 not have given ! But what was to be done ? Hardly 
 had he made his appearance, when he would ask. 
 " And your Caracciolo, where is she ? " 
 
 Q 
 
226 HENRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 I was obliged to come forward and listen to Ms 
 inquiries for my health and tranquillity of mind, 
 made in his most honied tones — the flatteries of the 
 executioner to the condemned man. 
 
 " Poor thing ! she is so good, we never see her, we 
 never hear her ;" put in the hypocritical Abbess, who 
 was always fair-spoken of me to my face. "Your 
 Eminence, I must make a complaint of our Hen- 
 rietta ; she becomes more and more misanthropic every 
 day ; she shuns our society, and shuts herself up in 
 her room, even during the hours of recreation she does 
 not join the others." 
 
 " Leave her alone a moment with me," said the 
 Archbishop, in a tone of patriarchal command. 
 
 The nuns left the room with airs of discontent, 
 and muttering-;-" I suppose we shall hear of nothing 
 now but la Caracciolo !" I sat down at some distance, 
 curious enough to see how his Eminence would begin 
 the conversation. 
 
 He assumed an affable attitude, and passing his 
 handkerchief across his brow, asked me — 
 
 " Why are you thus always alone and pensive ?" 
 
 " Is this, too, a crime ? When I fulfil my duties, 
 and obey all injunctions, cannot I dispose of the rest 
 of my time myseK? " 
 
 " Nevertheless I should like to take a peep through 
 the partition, at what you are doing for so many hours 
 
CARDINAL ItlARIO. 227 
 
 alone in your room. The confessor is not entrusted 
 with all of it." 
 
 " I read, I scribble, I work — perhaps these are 
 infractions ?" 
 
 " Certainly ; you are not permitted to read or 
 write anything but devotional works. Pray what do 
 you then read and write ? " 
 
 " Some instructive book to console me in the op- 
 pression which brutifies me. I sketch the memoirs 
 of my captivity to leave a remembrance of it, if I 
 can." 
 
 " Oppression ! Memoirs ! Captivity ! Heydey ! 
 Where in the world have you got that Carbonaro 
 vocabulary ? Do you know that I ought to punish 
 you severely for such unreasonable fancies ?" 
 
 " You can do that too 1 All that is wanting to me 
 now is the chain to my foot. Order it." 
 
 "The interest I feel in you would prevent my 
 doing this. Nevertheless I would like to make you 
 relinquish the preposterous idea of recovering liberty ; 
 upon this topic I am absolute — implacable, inex- 
 orable. I will never accede to it." 
 
 " You try in vain to deprive me of my last gleam 
 of hope. I have again written to the Holy See." 
 
 " I know it, I know it ; and I shall always nega- 
 tive it. But tell me, if you did get out, where would 
 you go ? " 
 
 " To my mother's house. I believe there is no one 
 
 Q2 
 
228 HENBIETTA CAKACCIOLO. 
 
 who can guard a daughter better than her own 
 mother." As I uttered these words the tears welled 
 up in my eyes, for the remembrance of my father 
 shot into my mind. The Cardinal uttered a laugh 
 which would have done credit to Mephistophiles. 
 
 " Fiddle-faddle ! you wish to get out to dance. 
 Tour mother gives balls to the liberals ; but let her 
 look well to what she is doing, or the police will look 
 to her." 
 
 This last inuendo exhausted all my remaining 
 patience. Seizing a fold of my scapulary, "With this 
 abhorred-by-all garment," I exclaimed, " I should be 
 ashamed to show myself, much more to take, part in 
 a ball. I seek my liberation to repossess an inesti- 
 mable boon, which I had renounced through inex- 
 perience, through weakness, perhaps through an 
 adverse fate." 
 
 " I cannot permit you to get out I repeat it. So 
 think no longer of it," returned the Cardinal, in a 
 determined tone. " A.t present I am about to set out 
 for Rome, to remain there a few days ; on my return 
 I will come and see you." 
 
 " And I on my side will never relinquish my efforts 
 for my freedom." When he had turned his back I 
 superadded, " May I never see your face again." 
 
 Nevertheless my dejection only increased from day 
 to day— my intellects began to suffer. I measured, 
 the mental torments of the two insane servants by 
 
CARDINAL RIAEIO. 229 
 
 my own, and pictured myself reduced to the same 
 condition. The hopes which I had reposed in the 
 liberal sentiments of Pius IX. were melting into 
 thin air (more than a year had elapsed since my 
 request was first made). At first they spoke of 
 absolving from vows, then a quinquennial renewal 
 of them ; finally it was confined to the renewal of 
 those only which had been professed after the issue 
 of the Brief — in the end the subject was dropped 
 altogether. Id the mind of Pius IX. monastic eman- 
 cipation and patriotism underwent the same fate. 
 
 " B quendo Boma non volto mantello ? " 
 
 My first intention, as I have already said, was to 
 go out for six months, and, had I not been refused, 
 this perhaps would have contented me with the 
 choice of passing into another convent. The capri- 
 cious refusal — the arbitrary denial to me of that 
 which was granted every day to so many others 
 whom the air of Naples (more especially in the 
 summer months) was unsalutary, irritated me to the 
 quick. It was evidently a personal affront, which 
 rather than submit to I would have renounced my 
 own existence. 
 
 From that hour, then, I bade adieu to every palli- 
 ative, every half-way means, and aimed directly at the 
 final absolving of my vows. I got together every 
 information on this subject within my power. I 
 
230 HENRIETTA CABACCIOLO. 
 
 procured books which treated of the matter, and had 
 a consultation with a doctor of canon law. I learned 
 that my first step must be to petition before the fifth 
 year (from the date of my profession) had expired, 
 to show sufficient cause for the annulling of my 
 vows — to prove that moral violence had been exer- 
 cised in the act of professing ; in fine, that the case 
 would be first heard at the ecclesiastical court of 
 Naples, afterwards in that of Rome, requiring much 
 delay and much money, with a faint probability of 
 success. 
 
 I was not a little disconcerted at the contemplation 
 of this mesh of difficulties. The fifth anniversary of 
 my profession was close at hand — then would the 
 courts of Naples run counter to the depositions of 
 a Cardinal- Archbishop in order to show justice to the 
 reclamations of a nun without patronage? Then, 
 again, where was I to procure the money required to 
 despatch an advocate to Eome, and that inevitably 
 required to oil the palms of their reverences in that 
 capital ? This melancholy prospective bewildered me, 
 I say. Nevertheless, not to lose the right of petition- 
 ing before the expiration of the term, I drew up 
 another memorial, which I addressed to the Court of 
 Naples, bringing to light every circumstance which 
 did violence to my will from the first day of my 
 entrance to that on which I took the vows. 
 
 What was the fate of this memorial ? Was it inter- 
 
CARDINAL RIABIO. 231 
 
 cepted in the courts, which never allowed it to trans- 
 spire, or did it fall into the fangs of the Cardinal? 
 This mystery was never cleared up to me — ^it was 
 not even returned to me, but disappeared without a 
 trace. 
 
 Seeing the maze of diflSculties to which I ran the 
 risk of being exposed, I determined to write directly 
 to the Holy Father himself ; to open my heart to 
 him as a daughter, to move him to compassionate my 
 desperate condition. In writing- to a man of the 
 world as Pius IX. was said to be, I did not treat of 
 my bodily health only, which was getting worse 
 every day; but I told him besides of matters not 
 less important : that having had from my youth an 
 inclination for matrimony, I should marry if he 
 would, absolve me from my obligations to the oppo- 
 site state — a state I had assumed against my wUl, 
 and which had dragged me into a current of disas- 
 trous and fatal circumstances. To make sure of 
 inviolability of my secret, I commenced my address 
 with the word ' Confiteor,' a form adopted in auri- 
 cular confession. 
 
 The Cardinal, who in the mean time had returned 
 from Rome, had paid his visit to the convent, and 
 once more was desirous of a t^te-k-tete with me. He 
 prefaced his colloquy by presenting me with a rosary 
 imported by him from the Holy City and blessed 
 there, asking in exchange some little piece of my 
 
232 HENRIETTA CAKACCIOLO. 
 
 work. The present seemed to me one of evil augury. 
 More desirous of my freedom than covetous of such 
 toys of saintliness, I answered his Eminence some- 
 what drily that I knew nothing of woman's work. 
 
 "That is not the case," he said, insinuatingly; 
 " your work is hot unknown to me. Apply yourself 
 to something — a piece of embroidery for instance — 
 it will serve as a distraction." 
 
 The Abbess entered at this moment, and being 
 apprised by the Cardinal of my refusal, contorted her 
 face into an expression of indignation. 
 
 " The work shall be done without fail," said she, 
 in an imperious tone to the Cardinal ; " I will see 
 that she begins and finishes it myself." 
 
 For many days she worried me, reiterating her 
 question, if I had commenced it, and what it was 
 to be. 
 
 Irritated at length by her incessant worry, I 
 said to her — 
 
 " Do you wish to impose it on me as discipline ? " 
 
 "Not at all! I hope you will do it with good 
 will." 
 
 "Then pray have done with it altogether. I 
 detest that man as much as a State prisoner abhors 
 the author of his imprisonment. Is it not he who 
 detains me in this state of forced seclusion? " 
 
 " But he does it because he is fond of you — " 
 
 " Fond of me ! Much thanks ! Would to God 
 
CAEDINAL RIARIO. 233 
 
 he hated me, instead of bestowing his friendship 
 on me ! " 
 
 " Now, however," rejoined the Abbess, with an 
 affected air, "you must be more tranquillised, the 
 young nuns annoy you no longer." 
 
 " I can perceive that," I answered ; " they are 
 afraid I should get out and pay them back in the 
 coin they deserve." 
 
 The Superior bit her lip — I learned afterwards 
 that the subject of my petition was considered in the 
 light of a poHtical crime, and, enrolled amongst state 
 affairs, occupied the authorities more than I imagined ; 
 and that between Riario, the Abbess, and the Con- 
 fessor, there reigned upon that subject an under- 
 standing not less secret than complete. 
 
 Hearing that I had been transferred from the duty 
 of Infermiera to that of superintendent of the bread, 
 the Cardinal solicited some confectionery, provided it 
 was made by my hand. He received the same 
 negative reply. 
 
 Having come one day to the convent upon some 
 business, after it was despatched, he requested the 
 Sisters to conduct him to my room. Examining 
 everything in it, even minutely, he then went out 
 upon the terrace, and seeing Vesuvius, with the 
 adjacent hills in front of him, and the enchanting 
 country round about, began in loud praises of it. 
 " What a charming view your room commands — 
 
234 HENRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 what an extensive horizon — this view raises the 
 heart and edifies the soul — and can you leave it ?" 
 
 "This prospect," I answered, "only makes the 
 prisoner sigh the more for the boon of liberty." 
 
 *' But you have liberty enough : who will say that 
 a larger dose of it would not turn to your disad- 
 vantage ? " 
 
 " With similar speeches the afflicted population of 
 Agrigentum, too, were comforted by their tyrant," I 
 replied to his Eminence, accompanying the irony 
 with a smile. 
 
 He understood me, and remained silent — then 
 took his leave. That was the age of Monsignore 
 Apuzzo, of Pietrocola, of Del Caretto — the age, when 
 by dint of sophistry, a doctrine was raised to the 
 dignity of an axiom — " That the peoples of the 
 two SicUies, too happy in the state of innocence 
 in which they lived, should, not run the risk of being 
 defrauded of it by seeking to carry their literary 
 acquirements beyond the alphabet." In what portion 
 of the Christian world does not the ignominy of 
 Monsignore Apuzzo's ' Catechisms ' resound ? Could 
 clerical obscurity and Bourbon despotism leave be- 
 hind them a monument of greater infamy than this? 
 About six weeks after I had despatched my letter to 
 the Holy Father, the confessor came one morning 
 much dejected and in bad humour. He had just come 
 from the Archbishop's palace. Strange ! the letter 
 
CARDINAL RIARIO. 235 
 
 written in confession to the Pope, and kept secret 
 from the Confessor himself, had been in the first 
 instance handed to the Cardinal. 
 
 The sanctity of a sealed letter violated — and the 
 seal of Confession broken. His Eminence wished to 
 know from the Canon the how, and when, and why 
 he had permitted that writing to be addressed to 
 his Holiness, and asked, moreover, if any stormy 
 passion had suggested such an expedient. 
 
 The Canon asserted that he knew nothing, of it — 
 at least so he said : they are all of one kidney. It 
 was certain that in the Confessional I had made it a 
 law to myself, to reveal nothing hut the merest 
 infractions of discipline. 
 
 The Cardinal was in great wrath at what it pleased 
 him to qualify in me and call my irrepressible con- 
 spiracy, and allowed a long time to elapse before he 
 returned to see me. That letter of mine which had 
 fallen into his hands had broken the last thread of 
 hope which I entertained of quitting the convent ; 
 only, in place of those illusions which, one after the 
 other, vanished at their birth, there had begun to 
 arise a different and clearer light of salvation for me. 
 The genius of Italian liberty had begun to scatter the 
 dust of the tomb from his locks, and to resume his 
 ancient sway fairer and stronger than ever. 
 
236 HENRIETTA CAEACCIOLO. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 1848. 
 
 Since the last months of the year 1 847, the horiion 
 of Italy had assumed a threatening aspect which pre- 
 saged a crisis both imminent and inevitable. 
 
 The popiilations of our peninsula found them- 
 selves involved in a state of expectancy which differed 
 little from that of the Millenarian — each day as it 
 passed seemed an age — with the evening came de- 
 pendency ; every sun as it rose gave life to renewed 
 hopes. Though shut out from the world, I received 
 information of all that was going on, through my 
 relatives ; and the slightest symptoms of change, the 
 smallest popular movement, made my heart bound. 
 
 The convents of Naples have been for all time, and 
 are still, the most uncompromising champions of 
 despotism. By the order of Superiors and the motu 
 proprio of the nuns themselves prayers were offered 
 up in San Gregorio for the reigning monarch, in 
 
1S48. 237. 
 
 which, amongst other things, the Almighty was im- 
 plored to exterminate the evil doers, in other words — 
 the liberals With what a profound sense of dis- 
 approval was I constrained to take part in these. 
 Against such prayers my heart protested with all its 
 energy — instead, I ofifered up silent vows to the 
 Omnipotent for the downfall of tyranny, and the 
 triumph of the nation to which it was my boast to 
 belong. 
 
 My changed demeanour did not escape the obser- 
 vation of the nuns ; then the cry went forth that I 
 was a revolutionary, associated with evil societies, a 
 sectarian, heretic, and what not, and that the convent 
 was in the utmost danger on my account. I paid no 
 attention to their lamentations, whilst I deplored the 
 brute ignorance in which they lived. Nay, from the 
 day on which Ferdinand II. swore to grant a consti- 
 tution, and the liberty of the press was proclaimed. 
 I openly purchased the liberal papers, and read them 
 aloud in the convent halls, so many ages deaf to 
 the accents of liberty. I experienced a state of rap- 
 ture at the clamorous uprising of the people, the 
 terrific roar of revolution, the noise of barricades, the 
 falling of thrones, which so contrasted with the se- 
 pulchral silence of my prison. What ecstasy ! I 
 repeated to myself, if these misanthropic vaults would 
 echo with the blast of a trumpet which might be 
 heard in the Capitol itself ! 
 
238 HENRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 In the mean time my enthusiasm, fed daily on the 
 news, increased in proportion as I saw the priests 
 foaming with rage and fanaticism. 
 
 The faces of these negromants served me as a 
 telegfaph. Did a jaundiced hue overspread their 
 contracted features, I was sure that the ship was 
 sailing weU. Did they begin to raise their downcast 
 looks to sneer, to explode in imprecations against the 
 constitution which they called prostitution, I knew 
 the wind was against us. By degrees a conspiraicy 
 was formed in the convent, with the object of mor- 
 tifying my liberalism, and making a butt of my con- 
 victions. It was at the moment when those hisfh- 
 souled Neapolitan ladies set out for Lombardy to 
 co-operate (it was said) in the expulsion of the 
 Austrian. What a storm of sarcasms, of empoisoned 
 quips, of pungent sneers, of irony, assailed me then 
 as I sat at meals in the refectory ! Often have I left 
 the table at the soup, and betaken myself to my 
 room, furious, and tempted to set fire to the convent, 
 and send all those wasps and hornets,- together with 
 myself, into smoke and ashes. 
 
 One day, during one of those senseless alarms 
 which, without any motive, too frequently occurred 
 in the streets of Naples, I and two other nuns 
 ascended to the belfry to see what was occurring. 
 The populace was flying in every direction; three 
 young men only were walking quietly on ; they per- 
 
1848. 239 
 
 ceived us through the grating, and one of them cried, 
 " Cheer up, my little nuns, your woes will soon be 
 over." 
 
 My satisfaction was only too apparent. One ot 
 the nuns observing it — 
 
 "You laugh," she cried; "it maybe matter for 
 crying." 
 
 " Cry you who lose at it," I answered ; " I who 
 win will laugh." 
 
 The Abbess, who learned what we had done, 
 ordered the belfry to be locked — there remained, 
 however, other loopholes in the convent from whence 
 I could espy undiscovered what was going on in the 
 world outside. I knew already that the constitution 
 as it was granted by the king promised no reform in 
 matters of religion. He, a dotard and sanfidesta, 
 pig-headed, and a hypocrite, had neither granted 
 liberty of worship nor anything from which I could 
 draw a hope to see monasteries — those lowest pits of 
 hell, the opprobium of our age — suppressed. The cry, 
 " Viva Pio Nono " alone, which often reached my ear, 
 was still an anchor of hope for me. Could a pope 
 who, on the outset of his reign, had declared himself 
 before the whale world the exalted friend of liberty — 
 could he, I repeat, sustain himself in the admiration 
 of the Christian world without yielding some reform 
 in the matter of ecclesiastical discipline — a reform as 
 
240 HENRIEITA CAEACCIOLO. 
 
 much required for the wants of the age as it would 
 be suggested by his own convictions ? 
 
 Encouraged by such reflections, I addressed another 
 memorial to be consigned to the hands of the Pontiff 
 himself Lajring aside the love of supplication I had 
 hitherto employed, I used on this occasion language 
 of a more vigorous expression, and such as was suit- 
 able to the times. 
 
 I said plainly that the monastic state was nothing 
 but a remnant of Oriental barbarism — the convent 
 nothing but a prison for those who had entered it 
 unwillingly ; that conscious of not having committed 
 any crime against God or my neighbour I did not 
 know by what law, human or divine, I should be 
 left to languish, and finally to die in despair in a 
 prison. That I hoped to find favour in the mercy of 
 a prince who had given such promise to Italy, and to 
 Christianity a new era of reform. I concluded by 
 declaring that if the justice I solicited was persis- 
 tently denied me, I would (fearless of all conse- 
 quences) have recourse to the free press, and declare 
 to the whole world the enormity of my sacrifice. 
 
 The Pope was not averse to my leaving the con- 
 vent ; the sacred college of bishops and regidars who 
 had the jurisdiction in these matters, were con- 
 tinually granting leave to the Sisters to go out, when 
 a medical man deposed to the necessity of it. The 
 court of Rome, therefore, had no motive for refusing 
 
1848. 241 
 
 me in particular my request ; the obstacle was in 
 Naples, because formality required the vote of the 
 Ordinary to support the petition. The Cardinal, for 
 private reasons of his own, persisted in refusing ; and 
 two years and a half had now elapsed, during which 
 I had been suffering from his arbitrary act. 
 
 The 15th of May had arrived — a day of terrible 
 reaction, and which we NeapoUtans shall ever re- 
 member with horror. 
 
 The Abbess had caused the usual hour of divine 
 service to be anticipated, that we might ascend to 
 the Belvedere to see the King on his progress to the 
 church of San Lorenzo, which was in close proximity 
 to the convent — it being the day appointed for the 
 opening of Parliament. I had seen the King in the 
 previous month of January, and as he passed on 
 horseback on his way to the Quartiere del Mercato, 
 at the moment of his arrival beneath the belfry, take 
 off the tricolour cockade which he wore at his breast, 
 and conceal it in his pocket, that he should not let 
 the populace of that teeming quarter see the symbol 
 of the liberty he had promised. This act, which may 
 have escaped the observation of the greater number, 
 seemed to me to augur badly. 
 
 At ten o'clock, the portress came out of breath 
 to inform us that the entire Toledo was barricaded, ' 
 and that it was absolutely necessary that the convent 
 gates should be shut at once. I betook myself at 
 
 K 
 
242 HENRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 once to my accustomed station at the little window, 
 to observe the National Guard (a picket of which 
 was posted at San Lorenzo), and remarked an un- 
 usual stir there. The report of the first cannon 
 Warned us that the affair was more serious than we 
 had imagined. This humane (?) religious (?) and 
 Constitutional (?) King, bestowed on his capital the 
 shells of the forts and the balls of his soldiers' 
 musketry. 
 
 A number of young men of the higher class 
 ei'ected, in connexion with the populace, two barri- 
 cades, one below the belfry, another at the comer of 
 the lane "Cinque SantL" For many hours the 
 cannon and the musketry never for a moment 
 ceased ejecting their deadly missiles on unfortunate 
 Naples. 
 
 I began to distinguish some cries of " Long live 
 the King 1" 
 
 The sisters were in high glee — even to the clapping 
 of handls. I, in equal tribulation. There was no 
 longer any doubt — the fate of Naples hung on the 
 favour of despotism — the National Guard attempted 
 flight in various disguises — aU was in confusion. The 
 populace, which in the. morning had gone hand in 
 hand with the Liberals in constructing the barricades 
 and shouting " Long live the Nation," in the same 
 evening prostrated themselves before the cavalry »— 
 shouting, " Long live the King !" 
 
1848. 243 
 
 I flew to my room, and committed my memoirs to 
 the flames, along ■with other papers, -which might have 
 compromised any of my relatives. 
 
 The magnificent Gravina Palace, which had been 
 fired by the Swiss mercenaries, threw its sinister light 
 even to our convent, and on the morrow a white flag 
 floated ou the smoking niins in sign of jubilee and 
 conquest. It is known how the city was placed in a 
 state of siege ; but an order from the police com- 
 manded that a white flag should appear at every 
 balcony and window. The " berghinelle " of the 
 market, and of another neighbouring quarter known 
 for their vicious lives, betook themselves, dressed in 
 white, wreathed with flowers, and drunk, to the 
 piazza of the palace to congratulate the despot on his 
 victory and join in the bacchanals of the soldiery they 
 fell in with. 
 
 My position was not exempt from all danger. 
 Many things transpired to assure me that my name 
 also was inscribed on the black books of the police. 
 Denouncers and false witnesses were not wanting 
 amongst so many members of the community. 
 
 In this state of things, God stretched forth His hand 
 to me. 
 
 A Capucin monk, of venerable mien and long and 
 hoary beard, summoned me to the parlour. He came 
 from Rome charged to consign to me a Brief of Per- 
 mission to get out, and at the same time to exhort me 
 
 K 2 
 
244 HENRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 to patience to bear my state, in the choice of which 
 my will had not been consulted. This Brief was not 
 precisely that which I had hoped for. The Holy See 
 wished to sacrifice justice in great measure to appear- 
 ances. Not to give offence to the Archbishop of 
 Naples, who had always energetically opposed my 
 instances, quoting the specious pretext that my mother 
 was in the practice of receiving persons suspected of 
 liberalism and atheism, the Brief, so to say, held its 
 foot in both stirrups — satisfying me on the one side 
 with a partial leave, and appeased the Cardinal by 
 making it imperative that 1 should enter a " Conser- 
 vatorio " of my own selection, and not the maternal 
 house ; it being understood that I could absent myself 
 during the day, provided I returned every evening. 
 This time the order was formal, and the Cardinal 
 could not interfere with his veto. 
 
 Though this was but a half measure, yet I saw that 
 it would be but folly to refuse. It was still a step in 
 advance towards allowing one day the perfect liberty I 
 panted for, nor was I ignorant of the proverb which 
 says, "By spreading the dough, the bread is made, 
 finer." 
 
 This Brief arrived most opportunely. Seeing that a 
 messenger had been despatched directly from the 
 Holy Father himself, made it seem that I was under 
 more samtly protection than I was in reality, and 
 
1848. 245 
 
 those were silenced who would otherwise have readily- 
 been my accusers. 
 
 I made a copy of the Brief, and sent it to the 
 Cardinal. He consulted with several Canons to see 
 if he could possibly still throw some impediment in 
 the way of my getting out ; but the order was ex- 
 plicit and admitted of no cavil. 
 
 Shortly after this he arrived. I never saw him 
 carry his head so high — a true signal in a Jesuit of 
 defeat. After having complained at considerable 
 length of my mother's violent hostilities with him, he 
 said to me — 
 
 " You will persist in going out ?" 
 
 " I wish to go out — and I will get out." 
 
 " In that case," he rejoined, " you must take the 
 trouble to find some Conservatorio yourself" .... 
 
 " Do not let this concern your Eminence," I said, 
 cutting short his sentence ; " this concerns myself 
 exclusively." 
 
 And in truth the choice of a Conservatorio did not 
 at first sight appear to me to be a matter requiring 
 great consideration. But who would have imagined 
 that at the moment of putting my foot beyond the 
 threshold of my purgatory, a noosed cord, new and 
 unsuspected, stood ready to entangle it — laid there 
 by the black-gowned camorra 1 
 
 I had to endure the most impertinent and humili- 
 ating repulses. As soon as each of these receptacles 
 
246 HENRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 received my request, they would send to make in- 
 quiries. Where ? To San Gregorio Armeno. Pilate 
 referring to Caiaphas. 
 
 " May we ask, if you please, the real motive for 
 which Sister Henrietta wishes to be transferred from 
 your Convent to a Conservatorio ? " 
 
 " Ah ! who knows, my daughter ! there are so 
 many things said of her — ^but there are bad tongues 
 everywhere." 
 
 " True ! true ! they say she is a lost one." 
 
 " Not at all — quite the reverse. She is full of fine 
 qualities — good, docile, generous, an excellent friend, 
 &c., &c. Still, there are persons who say serious 
 things of her — but, as I say, there are bad tongues 
 everywhere." 
 
 "And what is this they say ? " 
 
 •'They say she reads prohibited books — that she 
 furnishes the papers of the wicked ones with vil- 
 lanous matter — that she writes poetry and is con- 
 cocting a scheme of ecclesiastical reform, the first 
 effect of which is to be the abolition of convents and 
 monastic orders, that — that — that — " 
 
 Here the good woman appended a string of 
 formidable accusations to me — then on her own 
 jurisdiction condemned me to final punishment — 
 attached a running noose round my neck — but seeing 
 me swinging between the sky and the ground, she 
 would exclaim in a charitable tone — 
 
 " For all that she is so good ! " 
 
1848. 247: 
 
 At sight of such a repulsive portrait, who would 
 have received the original under their roof. 
 
 I made application to retreats even of the lowest 
 class. I found all their doors closed. 
 
 Seeing through these machinations, I addressed a 
 letter to the Cardinal, saying, that if he had not 
 sufficient authority to cause the orders of the Holy 
 See to be carried into effect, I would write to Rome 
 and make another reclamation. 
 
 The Cardinal went forthwith to the Conservatorio 
 di Costantinopoli, and ordered that I was to be re- 
 ceived there without any delay. At first the Sisters 
 alleged that they had no room at their disposal. 
 The Cai-dinal replied — 
 
 " This is only a pretext — should it be the case, 
 however, one of yourselves must give up her room 
 to the Signora Caracciolo." 
 
 In an instant there were a dozen rooms at my 
 disposal. I was obliged to pay down forty ducats 
 entrance-money. My servant Maria Giuseppa, 
 overjoyed to accompany me, made our preparations 
 for departure with great jubilee. 
 
 The nuns of San Gregorio Armeno, not having it 
 in their power to manifest their ill-will to me any 
 further, caused the Cardinal to prohibit me from 
 taking with me the plate and valuables which 
 according to the custom in that communit6 I had 
 inherited from my aunts. 
 
248 HENRIETTA CABACCIOLO. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 THE "CONSERVATORIO DI COSTANTINOPOLI." 
 
 On the morning of the 28th of January, ] 849, two 
 carriages stopped before the door of the convent; in 
 one was my mother, in the second sat the Vicar. I 
 found myself softened in no slight degree as I pressed 
 the hands of the few nuns who felt for me — these 
 were almost all amongst the elder ones — ^women of 
 simple piety ; and when I entreated their indulgence 
 for any annoyance I might involuntarily have caused 
 them, they were touched even to tears. I would 
 have taken leave too of those who had waged war 
 against me, but they had all betaken themselves to 
 some hiding-place. 
 
 After nine years of cruel suffering, I passed that 
 threshold once more, which I thought never to 
 have crossed again. 
 
 " Be quick ! " cried my mother, somewhat impa- 
 tiently, " how long you keep us waiting 1 " , 
 
THE " CONSERVATORIO DI COSTANTINOPOLI." 249 
 
 This she said to me, who had made me wait for 
 her will — nine long years I 
 
 The carriage drove off — when a few yards from 
 the door, I turned round to look upon the lofty and 
 naked walls of the convent, the belfry, the stairs and 
 pillars of the church. The iron gate recalled to me 
 the memory of the day when its creaking hinges had 
 separated me from the dearest objects of my life, and 
 in sadness I murmured to myself the celebrated 
 stanza — 
 
 ' E come quel chi con lena appanata 
 TJscito fuori del pelago alia riva. 
 Si Volge all' aequa perigliosa e gimta, 
 Cosi I'animo mio oh' ancor fuggiva 
 Si volse indietro a rimirar lo passo 
 Che nou lascio giammai persona viva." 
 
 The sisters of the new convent awaited the party 
 at the door. When the compliments to the Vicar 
 were over, and my mother had taken her leave, I 
 was shown into the dining-room of the Abbess, there 
 being no common refectory. Here I dined with 
 the Superior and three other nuns, after which I was 
 conducted to the second story, to the room assigned 
 to me near the church. 
 
 The city of Naples, devastated in 1526 by a terrible 
 pestilence which cut off 60,000 souls, erected a small 
 chapel to the Mother of God. When, therefore, in 
 1575, the scourge again spread itself over the whole 
 
250 HENRIETTA CABACCIOLO. 
 
 of Italy without reaching us, the grateful commune 
 changed the modest chapel to a temple, to which 
 later, in 1603, was added a conservatorio — a handsome, 
 extensive, and conamodious building, placed in one 
 of the most cheerftd quarters of the city. I found 
 there few occupants — fourteen oblates, some twenty 
 scholars, and four lay sisters ; the oblates wore the 
 dress of the Immaculate Conception. The scholars, 
 besides feminine works, occupied themselves, in some 
 slight degree, with letters. 
 
 Having been for so long unaccustomed to the ebb 
 and flow of the great thoroughfares, to that clamor- 
 ous uproar of voices, to that deafening sound of 
 wheels, altogether characteristic of Naples, I thought 
 at first that I had ascended, by some miracle, from 
 the realm of shadows to the living world. My sight 
 seemed clearer, my lungs more expanded, my mind 
 more calmed. I no longer saw before me that 
 enormous waU of the cloister, which for nine years 
 had weighed upon my chest like an incubus, and 
 confined my respiration. I heard the people, the 
 carriages, the sellers, the troops pass. I could not, 
 indeed, look out of the windows, they were raised 
 too high ; but finding myself in one of the most beau- 
 tiful positions of the city, I coiild imagine myself 
 lodged rather in a private house than in a monastery. 
 All, in fine, appeared to me new, all something sin- 
 gular and strange — the air, the sound, the light, the 
 
THE " CONSERVATOEIO DI COSTANTINOPOLI." 251 
 
 movement, even to the semblance of my fellow 
 beings. My own person seemed to me an exotic 
 plant transplanted from a distant land ; it appeared, 
 in some strange way, an object of curiosity to me. 
 I do not fear to be considered as exaggerating, if, to 
 depict that singular illusion, I confess to have applied 
 to the mirror to confirm me in my own personal 
 identity. 
 
 The Brief permitted me to go out every morning, 
 but the Cardinal, who had been jestingly entitled my 
 " Sir Hudson Lowe,'' prohibited me from going out 
 on foot. 
 
 I have said that all appeared more humanized. 
 The air of San Gregorio breathed the damps of the 
 dead chamber — an atmosphere loaded with mephitic 
 miasma, which, penetrating everywhere, infiltrated 
 into the system more or less acrimony, asperity, and 
 ill-temper. Restored to a free, healthy, well-venti- 
 lated atmosphere, to the affectionate intercourse of 
 relations, to the sweet communion of the senses, of 
 the emotions of patriotism ; restored, in a word, to 
 the embrace of humanity, 1 at once experienced the 
 beneficial results. By little and little my reason 
 disentangled itself from the dark mist which enve- 
 loped it. The heart which had taken refuge in its 
 innermost lair — which had withered in barren 
 struggles and grown strong in its isolation — returned 
 gradually to intoxicate itself in concerts of that divine 
 
252 HENRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 harmony, the love of one's kind. Then alone did I 
 begin to see clearly in what consisted the Christian 
 religion, the faith which, up to that moment, had 
 acted on my will with despotic command, that faith 
 which I had seen debased in practices of imbecile 
 piety, vituperative in its hatred of all that did not 
 bear the hieratic impress. I felt it then flow into me 
 in full streams, in the free exercise of the faculties of 
 the soul, in the workings of thought and sentiment, 
 in the participation of the sufferings of others. What 
 shall I say more ? the very notes which the organ, at 
 the moment of the consecration or elevation, gave 
 forth, suffused me with an ineffable sweetness, 
 softened and humanized me. 
 
 Better still would have been my new state, were it 
 not for two things which brought me serious annoy- 
 ance. The curiosity which my new dress excited 
 caused the public to examine me as they would an 
 animal in a menagerie ; and also that in the Conser- 
 vatorio a choral nun did not act as portress, but 
 instead a ferocious lay sister, little short of anthropo- 
 phagous. One could really picture this woman in a 
 menagerie, her appearance being partly human, 
 partly that of a Siberian bear : a forehead not more 
 than two fingers in breadth, eyebrows perpetually 
 knitted, minute and blodshot eyes, a flattened nose, 
 a mouth armed with formidable tusks which pro- 
 jected beyond the lips, and growling voice. When 
 
THE " CONSEEVATOEIO DI COSTAKTINOPOLI." 253 
 
 she looked, her look was a threat ; when she spoke, it 
 was to bite. 
 
 The gate was shut at sunset. To be five minutes 
 too late put her in a great rage ; she would grind her 
 teeth, roll her eyes, and mutter some such sentence 
 as, — " Small thanks to the Cardinal for the present he 
 has made the-Conservatorio ! A nun who must go 
 out every day ! " 
 
 Towards the end of the following October, the 
 Cardinal sent an order to the Abbess to prohibit my 
 going out at all in futm-e. I was once more reduced 
 to my primary state of reclusion. 
 
 " Nuovi tormenti, nuove tormentata." 
 
 In answer to my remonstrance the Cardinal came to 
 me and said that it was quite out of rule that a nun 
 should drive up the Corso in a carriage ; nor was it 
 fitting that the oblates of the Conservatorio should 
 be scandalized by my going out. 
 
 " What would be the condition of our holy religion, 
 and especially that of the monastic orders, if all. nuns, 
 as you do, felt the necessity of a walk in public ? " 
 
 Irritated at such want of humanity, and feeling 
 shame in submitting to a proud priest, the arbitrator 
 of my liberty, I determined to do everything in order 
 to shake off the ignoble yoke. For this purpose, it 
 occurred to me to apply, through the interest of 
 powerful friends, for the diploma of Canoness. 
 
254 HENBIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 Should I be enabled to obtain this preliminary 
 advantage, God and circumstances would aid me 
 in the complete acquisition of my aflfranchisement. 
 
 The religious and knightly order of the Canonesses 
 of Bavaria, analogous to that of the Commanders 
 of Malta, interdicts marriage to the women who 
 belong to it, but allows them to live at liberty with 
 their own families. Through the interest of Prince 
 Dendia, who had great influence at the court of 
 Munich, I obtained in a short time the nomination 
 to this, and also the insignia which it was necessary 
 I should wear. In the hope of seeing me thus freed 
 from further annoyance, and more tranquillized, 
 General Saluzzi, my generous benefactor, paid 240 
 ducats for me as fees. 
 
 One apprehension remained.. Would the Court of 
 Naples grant me the royal " Exequatur " ? By good 
 luck the Minister, Fortunato, signed it without 
 suspecting that I had taken the veil. Having ob- 
 tained this without much difficulty, I made another 
 step in advMice; I addressed a petition to B«me 
 for a further permission which should authorize me 
 to be transferred from the Order of San Benedetto 
 to that of Sant' Anna della Canonichese di Baviera. 
 But here again I encountered the toils and impedi- 
 ments of the priesthood. Cardinal Riario observed, 
 with a sneer, that I might wear the insignia of that 
 court over my Benedictine dress. 
 
THE " CONSERVATORIO DI COSTANTINOPOLI." 255 
 
 I had to endure at the same time other aiFronts 
 and annoyances still greater. The Sisters of the 
 Conservatorio were divided into three parties. One 
 was that of the Abbess, composed of oblates, to 
 the highest degree bigoted, and priest-worshippers ; 
 another, that of the younger Sisters — persons of some- 
 what liberal sentiments, or rather, it might be said, 
 less contented with their state ; a third, that of the 
 pupils, and others of the nuns who neither formed 
 league with the first nor sympathised with the second 
 party. The animosities between them had reached 
 such a degree that they would turn out of the way 
 in meeting them either in the corridors or garden. 
 
 That French sovereign who gave his name to his 
 age when he announced his " I am the State," was 
 less inflated with pride in the consciousness of his 
 own dominion than was the leader of the fanatical 
 party — the Abbess. With active intellect, but petu- 
 lant and unmanageable ; as miserly as an old maid ; 
 above all, obstinate and ignorant — she was Sanfidesta 
 bom, and would have made excellent material for a 
 pope had she been bom a man. Such was the 
 picture one of the sisters of the opposition, of rather 
 sarcastic turn, gave of her — who, seeing her one day 
 enter the room, said, " Here comes the Antipope." 
 
 Prejudged in the mind of this woman by the 
 informations given her by the sisterhood of San 
 Gregorio, could I remain in the Conservatorio without 
 
256 HENRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 becoming the object of the most active espionage. 
 The Abbess, soon perceiving my sympathy for the 
 sisters of the liberal party, suddenly withdrew her 
 favour from me to the extent even of not saluting 
 me. Having repeatedly gone to her room to wish 
 her good night, according to custom, she did not 
 deign to receive me. I consequently gave myself 
 no further trouble in going thither. Even the nuns 
 of her party would no longer salute me. 
 
 Although an alien to this community, I yet con- 
 formed myself to their practices, and took a Hvely 
 interest in their affairs. This good will on my part 
 was otherwise interpreted by the Superior, who 
 forgetting that I was a cloister nun, and herself but 
 simply an oblate, pretended to command me as she 
 would have done a pupil. 
 
 She saw on my table one day a couple of volumes 
 of the " Stone '' of Cantu. She took them up, and 
 turned over a few pages of the yet uncut book, and 
 again laying them down : — " I will wager that these 
 are political works," cried she, " and consequently 
 excommunicated. And here, Madam, I must tell 
 you once for all that books inscribed on the Index 
 do not enter into my Conservatorio." 
 
 An opportunity occurred in a short time for me 
 to render a service to the Communita, and I did it 
 with my whole heart ; laying aside all resentment for 
 embittered feeling created by the uncourteous con- 
 
THE "COnSKRVATORIO DI C03TANTIN0P0LI." 257 
 
 duct of the elder nuns to me. The French Sisters 
 of the Order of St. Vincent de Paule had for many- 
 years obtained the use of a portion of the Conserva- 
 torio for a public school. Not content with a por- 
 tion, they coveted the whole, and were about to 
 succeed in their design of appropriating what they 
 coveted. The inmates, in consternation at Such 
 danger, and counting no protectors, designed appeal- 
 ing to the king. 
 
 Through the influence of General Saluzzi, I ob- 
 tained an early audience for the Abbess, and also 
 for one of the Governors of the Conservatorio. Nor 
 did I confine myself to this, but obtained, also through 
 the General, the presentation of a petition to the 
 king, and the consignment of a royal decree, which 
 at once decided the matter in their favour. 
 
 I laboured, however, for a class of persons which, 
 acting like the cat, only scratches the hand which 
 caresses it. 
 
 Shut up in the convent from the age of eighteen, 
 my studies had been cut short, as masters were not 
 permitted within its walls. I could only cultivate 
 any literature unassisted, and also in concealment. 
 Music, alone, I was permitted to exercise so far as 
 it was of service in the choir. My position being 
 now somewhat changed, and being passionately fond 
 of music, like all Neapolitans, I purchased a piano- 
 forte that I might accompany myself when singing. 
 
258 HENRIETTA CAEACCIOLO. 
 
 Had a shell exploded in the Conservatorio it could 
 not have produced more consternation than did my 
 innocent pastime. The bigots took fire at once, and 
 then, to avoid any further annoyances and evil 
 speaking, I confined myself to playing, making a 
 sacrifice of my singing. This was not enough, it was 
 evident they sought a pretext to disgust me with the 
 Conservatorio. 
 
 One day Maria Giuseppe came to inform me that 
 the Abbess was highly incensed with me, and would 
 no longer permit me to play — music having been 
 always forbidden in the Conservatorio. I betook 
 myself at once to the Abbess's apartment, where she 
 received me with the air of a Caliph, without even 
 asking me to sit down. 
 
 " I have received a message from you by my 
 servant," I said. 
 
 " Yes," replied she, eyeing me sideways. " I am 
 much displeased at the scandalous character of your 
 playing." 
 
 "I cannot understand how playing the piano can 
 scandalize Y' 
 
 " Yesterday you played a tarantella over and over 
 again." 
 
 I could not resist a burst of laughter. 
 
 " In the first place,'' said I, " I did not play that 
 which you say I did. You do not understand music, 
 and have mistaken one thing for another ; but even 
 
THE " CON"SERVATORIO DI COSTANTIXOPOLI." 259 
 
 if I had, I do not see any difference between such 
 and the opera airs, whose words are almost all on the 
 subject of love, and which airs are daily played on 
 the organ in all phurches during the Mass and the 
 Benediction." 
 
 " 1 won't hear all this folly !" Stamping her foot and 
 gesticulating, she proceeded — "The Cardinal said 
 you were only coming here for a six months' stay : it 
 is now nearly a year, and there is no sign of your 
 going." 
 
 " I have not been quite useless in this Conserva- 
 torio," I replied, with difficulty curbing my indigna- 
 tion. " Had I not used my interest with my relative, 
 General Saluzzi, you would have been but a short- 
 reigned Abbess." 
 
 At these words, raising her voice to a loud pitch, 
 she cried — 
 
 " It was your duty — yes, it was your duty — for we 
 received you when all the convents of Naples refused 
 to take you." 
 
 I left the room without replying, and as I proceeded 
 to my own, vented my bitterness on the Cardinal who, 
 hindering me from going to my mother's house, had 
 forced me to occupy the same residence with a set of 
 malignant nuns. 
 
 In the month of June I again applied for permission 
 to get out, as during the preceding year. At first it 
 was denied me ; but matters being at this time 
 
 b2 
 
260 HENRIETTA CAKACCIOLO. 
 
 managed according to the shifting of political afiair?, 
 and the Pope having fled from Eome to Gaeta, it 
 was at last granted to me after reiterated solicita- 
 tions. 
 
 My mother, at my instance, went to Gaeta, to seek 
 an audience of Pope Pius IX. She was the bearer 
 of a petition from me, in which I prayed for secu- 
 larization, remaining bound by vows simply as 
 Canoness. And as the nuns of San Gregorio had 
 commenced proceedings against my relative, who, at 
 the time of my taking the veil, had feigned himself 
 my debtor for 1000 crowns, I entreated that he should 
 be liberated from such unjust demands. 
 
 The Holy Father seemed moved by the prayers of 
 my mother — he looked round the room for writing 
 materials, but not seeing any, he bade her return in 
 two days. My inexorable persecutor, in the mean 
 time — the Cardinal Archbishop — having been appiised 
 of this proceeding, posted off to Gaeta, where he 
 arrived the day after this interview — the bearer of the 
 very letter which I had addressed to his Holiness 
 under the seal of confession — intercepted and opened 
 by himself. 
 
 On my mother's return to him she found the Pope 
 changed ; he said to her with much seriousness, 
 " Madam, let your daughter remain satisfied with that 
 which she has already obtained ; who asks too much 
 gets nothing. She wishes to change both her dress 
 
THE " CONSERVATORIO DI COSTANTINOPOLI." 2G1 
 
 and condition: we cannot consent thereto. What 
 would the others say and do who are bound in the 
 same condition as herself. I had forgotten her name 
 the other day — Cardinal Riario has recalled it to my 
 memory — I have now in my possession a paper 
 which she addressed to me two years ago." 
 
 Further prayers were useless. 
 
 A month later a Pontifical Brief was communicated 
 to me by Riario, in which Pius IX. granted me the 
 " favour" to reside fixedly in the Conservatorio under 
 cloistral conditions ; to go out during the suinmer 
 months if the doctors thought that I required sea- 
 bathing — always providing that it should please the 
 Archbishop to permit me — and with regard to the 
 suit instigated by the nuns of San Gregorio, he 
 ordered that I should pay into the treasury of that 
 convent 1000 ducats, and receive from them a 
 monthly payment proportioned to the sum paid. 
 
 Up to that period I had received 14J ducats 
 monthly for the maintenance of myself and servant ; 
 henceforth we were to exist on a monthly pittance of 
 six ducats. Priestly charity and munificence ! How 
 was I to exist ? 
 
 Necessity has no law ; I was obliged to limit my 
 dinner to a single dish, and accustom my palate to 
 black bread. This I did — whilst the author of my 
 indigence, clad in purple and fine linen, was giving 
 sumptuous entertainments to certain of his colleagues 
 
2G2 HENEIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 — papal parasites, fugitives from Rome wLo had flowed 
 in upon the Bourbon to plan the stronger riveting of 
 the irons on the people. 
 
 Pius IX. came to Naples, changing locality as he 
 changed colour and sentiments. Although he went 
 out into public frequently, I deemed it superfluous — 
 nay, dangerous — to have recourse again to his mercy. 
 He who shut his ears to the groans of his country, 
 by what supreme privilege would the lamentations of 
 a poor nun reach them ? Flanked as he was by a 
 Ferdinand II. and by a Riario, how could he, even if 
 he would, give ear to my petition ? 
 
 The fanaticism, alone, of the dregs of the Neapolitan 
 people still sustained these two vulgar enemies of 
 every good in their tottering seats. And the king of 
 Rome, feeble of heart, still weaker in mind ; thirsting 
 for popularity, incapable of a permanent acquisition 
 of it, was putting the foundering bark of the poor 
 church in tow of their galley. 
 
 One evening towards dusk, whilst on my return to 
 the Conservatorio, the police prevented the carriage 
 which conveyed me from passing the " Piazza della 
 Pigne." The Pope was visiting the Museum, and it 
 was not possible to make way through the crowd. I 
 was constrained to make a great circuit, returning 
 back and going round by the Yicaria, and then 
 to ascend by San Pietro a Majella. 
 
 This delay, occurring from no fault of mine, pro- 
 
THE " CONSERVATORIO DI COSTAXTINOrOTJ." 263 
 
 cured me considerable impertinence from the enraged 
 portress, whose bloodshot eyes scowled fiercely, as she 
 added — 
 
 " If we have the misfortune to have you another 
 year, by my faith, you don't put your foot outside 
 this door !" 
 
 The Pope, prior to leaving Naples, desired to visit 
 in its turn each of the cloister convents. When the 
 turn came to that of San Giovanni, the nuns of the 
 Conservatorio sent a message to the Sisters of that 
 convent, begging them to conduct the Holy Father 
 to a spot which, from the approximation of the two 
 convents, would give them the opportunity of seeing 
 him. They led him to a terrace ; he gave his bene- 
 diction to them all. I know not who may have 
 drawn his attention to me^ — -he looked at me, and 
 said — 
 
 " A special benediction on the cloister nun," and 
 raising his hand, he blessed me. That act brought 
 me no consolation. I had looked for health, peace, 
 and emancipation from my ignoble servitude. Which 
 of these boons did this benediction bring me ? 
 
 In a few days Pius IX. returned to Rome, rejoicing 
 as his predecessor, who, on the fall of Rienzi, returned 
 bishop and lord into the Eternal City. The Cardinal 
 ' then seized the opportunity to set on me again. It 
 reached my ears that all the rigours of the cloister 
 were to be enforced against me, and it was proposed 
 
264 HENRIETTA CAEACCIOLO. 
 
 to replace me at once in my first abode — to re- 
 nounce once for all any hope of enlargement — to 
 resign myself to the lot of the other nuns, without 
 planning further tentatives ; and, as a recompense for 
 such act of abdication, they displayed in the distance 
 the distinction of an abbesship, which a special Brief 
 would procure for me, notwithstanding my youth. 
 
 How far more tempting to me was the black crust 
 which I shared with my good and faithful Maria 
 Giuseppa. 
 
 I answered the purpled priest that I would rather 
 live a free woman in a hut than a prisoner in the 
 most gorgeous palace — that I was not ambitious of 
 the honours which came through priests. 
 
 As a reply, he deprived me of even my meagre 
 pittance of six ducats. 
 
 I was now utterly destitute — high and dry on the 
 sands. 
 
 I had some little skill in female work, and the 
 Omnipotent, who tempers the wind to the shorn 
 lamb, had not deprived me of all activity and in- 
 dustry. Bather than be at the cost of the Conser- 
 vatorio, or at the charge of another, I would have 
 gained my living with ray own hands ; but how was 
 I to make my labour profit me, living in an enemy's 
 house, and groping about through the darkness which 
 covers the future. 
 
 To a relative who had reproached him with this 
 
THE " CONSERVATORIO DI COSTAXTINOrOLI." 265 
 
 cowardly persecution of a woman, the Cardinal re- 
 plied, hard as flint : — 
 
 " Her mother is rich, let her look to her." 
 Stretched upon that bed ofProcrastes — jammed, 
 so to say, between, the door and the wall, destitute, in 
 fine, of means of existence, I had recourse to my 
 energy of character to escape from such desperate 
 straits. 
 
 One evening, instead of returning as usual to the 
 Conservatorio, I informed the Abbess, by letter, that 
 she might shut the gate between vespers and nones ; 
 for as I was not willing to eat the bread of another, 
 I should remain at home. 
 
26G HEXRIEITA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 THE "ANNUNZIATA" OF CAPUA. 
 
 The nuns of Costantinopoli despatched my letter at 
 once to the Cardinal, who was petrified as he read 
 it, — he could not persuade himself that my fliglit 
 was real. ^ly confessor was very roughly handled 
 by him for not having known how to hinder me 
 from taking this desperate step. 
 
 In abject terror at the Cardinal's ire and vindictive 
 instincts, the Canon, with trembling hand, wrote to 
 me to supplicate me to return at once to the Con- 
 servatorio. 
 
 I answered him that he was to give himself no 
 trouble about me ; that he might say. to his Superior 
 that he did not wish any longer to direct the 
 conscience of a refractory nun. This second sugges- 
 tion was not a mere hold which I caught at — in my 
 anger against the abject priestcraft of Italy I felt 
 not the slightest disposition to confess myself. A 
 
THE "ANUNZIATA" OF CAPUA. 267 
 
 week passed, and all seemed to have calmed down 
 again. During the morning I drove out with my 
 tnother ; in the evening, as a small party was gene- 
 rally assembled in her rooms, I did not quit my own, 
 but received there the visit of some lady friend only. 
 
 The first week over, a letter came from the Vicar : 
 it informed me that on the day following I should 
 receive a visit from a canon, sent to speak to me by 
 the Cardinal. 
 
 This person came, in fact, and commenced to 
 exhort me in the name of saints of both sexes — to 
 extend promises and flatteries — to launch threats — to 
 advise me, in fine, to return to the cage forthwith. 
 I answered him roundly, " No." He added, that if 
 my flight was motived by the suspension of my 
 allowance, that would infallibly be restored to me 
 the moment I returned to my obedience— quitting 
 my relations, and shutting myself up in the convent. 
 His Eminence wished to make a favour of that which 
 was my due. He wasted his breath, in fine, for a 
 whole hour in trying to persuade me that my soul 
 was in danger of damnation, and to disobey the 
 Cardinal was tantamount to going straightway over to 
 the devil. I answered that my conscience was purer 
 and more tranquil than that of his Cardinal ; it was 
 he who should fear the eternal fire, for acting the 
 despot, making (since he well knew my repugnance 
 to confinement) a state affair of my liberty. 
 
268 HENRIETTA CAKACCIOLO. " 
 
 The messenger finding that, instead of giving 
 knocks, he received them, apologised, and took his 
 leave. 
 
 After this attempt upon me I remained another 
 fortnight in peace. My mother at that time lived in 
 the Palazzo Ripa, at Ponte Nuovo, where she had 
 formed an intimacy with the Princess, the proprietress 
 of the palace, and also with General Torchierelli, 
 another inhabitant, a person of some consideration. 
 
 The Princess, who came one evening to pay me a 
 visit, said, that she had heard from the General that 
 Riario, after a secret colloquy with the king, had 
 given to Peccheneda, the director of police, the order 
 for my arrest. 
 
 What motive urged these pei-sons thus to warn 
 me? Friendsliip perhaps? Perhaps the liberal 
 sentiments we shared ? Nothing of the kind ! Too 
 bigoted, too devoted to the Bourbon dynasty to 
 have anything in common with a nun rebeUious to 
 authority. Nay, I remember a lady member of 
 their family — a woman of rigid bigotry — had held a 
 secret conference with certain doctors and casuists 
 upon a most important case of conscience, whether 
 for example, by inhabiting the same house with me 
 she did not run the risk of the excommunication 
 attached to me. The conference decided that she 
 might dwell under the same roof, provided always 
 she avoided saluting me ! The consideration of the 
 
THE "ANUXZIATA" of CAPUA, 269 
 
 warning, therefore, arose from the dread that an arrest 
 should take place in their palace, and from do other. 
 
 Left to ourselves, we deliberated on the best course 
 to pursue, and it was decided to forestall the arrest 
 by flight. But where conceal myself? Other secure 
 asylum, excepting that of some bishopric, could not 
 preserve me from the clutches of authority. Where 
 was I to find this generous bishop, who would extend 
 hospitality and protection to me ? 
 
 After much reflection I remembered that the 
 Cardinal of Cassua, Cassano Serra, was a man of rare 
 goodness, and decided to apply to him. 
 
 We passed a most agitated night; every moment 
 I went to the window to see if the police were not 
 coming — I fancied every moment I heard the door- 
 bell ring, and footsteps ascending the stairs. 
 
 Heavy, even suffocating, was the niglit air which 
 passed over my face as I remained at the window ; 
 strong gusts at times swept the dust in whirls from 
 the ground, and threatened to extinguish the lamp 
 of the Madonna at the street corner. The sky was 
 dark and threatening ; all in that quarter slept ; the 
 lanes were deserted ; there was no other sound than 
 that of the slow step of the distant patrol. 
 
 My mother was asleep, dressed, on the sofa. To- 
 wards two o'clock, seated at the window, with my 
 head leaning on the pessicunes, I fell asleep, only to 
 dream fearfully. I thought three executioners seized 
 
270 HENRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 me, one by an arm, one by the bead, and a tbird by 
 the throat, dragging me along tbe ground down the 
 marble staircase of tbe palace 
 
 I awoke, strong and repeated shivering fits seized 
 me, my heart beat violently, a feeling of suffocation 
 in the throat, the signs of a nervous attack which 
 soon came on. Whether tbe attack was long and 
 violent I do not know ; no one was near me. When 
 I came to myself I was lying on the ground, with 
 aching limbs, exhausted, oppressed, tbe mind even 
 more worn out than the body. A hundred sad 
 thoughts, a hundred fears, unknown to me up to 
 tliat moment, assailed my heart with sad presages. 
 My evasion seemed to me but a temporary palliative, 
 for the police must sooner or later trace me out. 
 Taking flight seemed a step as fruitless as it was 
 stupid, and even injurious, and I seemed to myself 
 to be persisting in a course of foolish resistance. 
 
 Whither shall I go? What shall I do? I asked 
 myself. Shall I roam about the world a fugitive 
 with no resting-place ? Do not the ill-omened vows 
 which separate me from mother and sisters suflScel 
 Must I, with my own hand, widen the abyss which 
 isolates me? Had I been a man, far other?nse 
 would I struggle against my inexorable fate, — but a 
 woman, and a woman reprehensible in tbe eyes of 
 the world for having taken so bold a step — ^poor, ill, 
 without counsel, deprived of the compassionate aid 
 
THE "ANUNZIATa" OF CAPUA. 271 
 
 which would reach forth a friendly hand to draw me 
 from the abyss where I sink and am drowned — 
 what can I oppose, and how long resist — oh, my 
 God ! — the combined persecution of two powers, 
 which, with ever increasing animosity, assail me ! 
 Rather than beg from door to door the bitter bread 
 of exile, would it not be better for me to yield to 
 destiny, to resign myself to hard necessity, to appease 
 by simulations the wrath of superioift, and insinuate 
 myself into their good graces, and, not being able to 
 burst my chain, at least somewhat to lighten the 
 heavy weight. Assured by my reconsideration and 
 positioh, and pleased by my devotion, they will not 
 alone leave me in peace, but even heap favours on 
 me — will grant me grades in power, dignities — in 
 fine, an abbesship is no paltry gratification of the 
 ambition of a nun. 
 
 In haste I rose, lit the lamp, drew forth writing 
 materials, and dipped my pen in the ink, and, with 
 fingers trembling from the recent convulsion, pro- 
 ceeded to trace the following lines, which will not 
 readily quit my memory — 
 
 " Your Eminence, 
 
 " We are all in this world liable to deviate from 
 the right path. Our Lord Jesus Christ alone was 
 bom sinless. I, like the rest, seduced by the tempta- 
 tions of the wicked one — " 
 
272 HENRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 Here I stopped, the pen fell from my fingers upon 
 the paper, and for a long time I sat, with my head 
 leaning on the table. 
 
 " Wretch that I am ! " I exclaimed at last, bound- 
 ing to my feet, and fiercely tearing the paper to 
 pieces. " Wretch ! is it not enough that the chains 
 clog your feet, but must you offer your neck too! 
 Have you then aspired after liberty only to desert 
 your standard at the hour of battle ? And honour, 
 and nobler aspirations — ^your faith, your heart, your 
 conscience. Coward ! what have you made of these ? 
 Take counsel and comfort from the history of your 
 country — urged on by conflicting passions, governed 
 by lax power, abandoned to strange seduction, a prey 
 to snares which surrounded her on every side— ^ 
 unhappy Italy fell into bondage precisely as you have 
 done. In the same manner she languished for long 
 years imprisoned in the cloister, which princes spiri- 
 tual and temporal erected for her ; in the same 
 manner she wept, she implored, she protested. Your 
 own lot is analogous to these changes and chances, 
 your expiation is alike — alike your vows — even to 
 your late efforts to recover the exercise of yoxu- free 
 will. And now you shrink, and at what a moment ! 
 on the very vigil of your redemption, when the bright 
 sun of young Italy has begun to disperse the darkness 
 of tyranny ! " 
 
 At daybreak I set off with my mother for Capua. 
 
THE "AXUNZIATA" OF CAPUA. 273 
 
 Cardinal Cassano received us with extreme courtesy. 
 He was a man easy of access, free from prejudice, and 
 incapable of meanness. He promised me his pro- 
 tection, and a.ssured me he would do all in his power 
 to see me freed from the state of hardship and 
 constraint in which I was placed. After midday his 
 vicar came, sent by him to arrange matters with me. 
 I found in this priest a most worthy man. Not 
 content with receiving my confession, which I made 
 kneeling before him bathed in tears, he requested rae 
 to come the next day to the palace to relate to him 
 my whole life. 
 
 Assured that my motives in this matter were only 
 pure and noble, he asked me for all the papal docu- 
 ments which I had been in receipt of, up to that day. 
 In our hurried departure they had been forgotten in 
 Naples, which obliged my mother to return for them, 
 and, as this took time, the good vicar advised that for 
 my greater security I should enter a " Kitero," where 
 I might go out at any hour of the day I desired, 
 provided I passed the night there. One of these 
 " Riteri " was called the Annunziata. The vicar 
 found there an unoccupied room for me, and begged 
 that I would not be influenced by the name of the 
 establishment, for though there were foundlings in it, 
 there were also a small number of religieuses who 
 did not belong to that class of women. He supplied- 
 me with a portion of the furniture, the rest I hired 
 
 T 
 
274 HENRIETTA CAEACCIOLO. 
 
 from the hoteL I then, and Maria Giuseppa, who 
 never deserted me, entered the Ritero, and after two 
 days my mother took her departure. The Superiore 
 paid me great attention. The vicar sent his own 
 servant every day to know if I wanted anything, and 
 the Cardinal gave directions that the religienses 
 and the girls should pay me every respect. 
 
 A few days passed by, during which Eiario was at 
 some pains to find out where I was. When he dis- 
 covered this, he penned an impertinent epistle to 
 Cardinal Cassano, reproaching him for having given 
 me refuge. This latter returned for answer that an 
 honourable mm was in question, not, as his letter 
 would seem to make her, a fugitive from prison, guilty 
 of some enormity. Moreover, that it rather behoved 
 the Archbishop of Naples to express his thanks for 
 having received her than to censure him. Riario 
 suppressed his rage, only to launch it forth at a more 
 favourable opportunity. 
 
 We come now to the ignoble retreat into which my 
 destiny had launched me. The Annunziata at Capua 
 is a magnificent building, and the church most beau- 
 tifuL The religieuses have each their separate room, 
 out the foundlings sleep crowded tegether in long 
 dark corridors, which one cannot enter without dis- 
 gust. At that time there were nearly three hundred 
 of these girls. 
 
 I was shocked by the squalor, dirt, and wretched 
 
THE "ANUXZUTA" of CAPUA. 275 
 
 appearance of these poor creatures : deprived of the 
 influence of domestic virtue, and of the requisites 
 which ennoble the weaker sex — destitute of all in- 
 struction ; rude, loud talking, petulant, dissembling — ■ 
 they lived as it were chained together in one large 
 common room. They appeared rather a herd of 
 brute beasts, than a family of rational creatures 
 living in a Christian land, and brought together there 
 under the auspices of the church with the object of 
 moral reformation. To these disagreeable qualities 
 they added manners of the most disgusting famili- 
 arity, which they used with the soldiers of the 
 garrison. The Abbess of the religieuses, who was 
 also Superior of the foundlings, was quite unable to 
 bridle their depravity. The poor woman, rendered 
 cross and irritable by infirmity, and by the continual 
 worry and vexation such a community caused her, 
 had entirely abandoned the prudence and command 
 of temper required for the management of such a 
 community. 
 
 At that time Capua was in a state of great disorder. 
 The prisoners had revolted ; the pupils of the uni- 
 versity had done the same, and attempted the life of 
 the rector. These unfortunates of the Annunziata 
 bethought themselves of doing likewise, and resolved 
 nothing less than to assassinate the poor Abbess. 
 Some little respect they had for me kept them with- 
 in bounds for a while, but finally one of them, bolder 
 
 T 2 
 
276 . HENRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 than the rest, laid a trap for her. There was above 
 the staircase, like a tunnel, rather difficult of access. 
 The wretched girl lay in wait at an upper window, 
 and at the moment the Abbess was passing up let fall 
 a heavy flowerpot. The poor woman only owed her 
 life to the circumstance of having stopped for a 
 moment before putting her foot on the fatal step. 
 
 One morning she found painted on her door two 
 large black crosses, and over them a skull — a menace 
 of death. 
 
 These ribalds put into operation every means of 
 seduction that they might win over to their nefarious 
 designs my servant ; but Maria Giuseppa, who for pro- 
 bity and prudence was an exception to the proverb — 
 not only absurd, but false — that next to your brother, 
 your servant is your greatest enemy, so far from 
 lending an ear to their persuasions, was a rigid censor 
 of their behaviour. 
 
 She censured their conduct severely on an occasion 
 when the Abbess, having been confirmed in her 
 office by the Superiors, they proceeded to ring the 
 death-bell. They did even worse on another occa- 
 sion, when, on the eve of a popular festa, the 
 Abbess had prohibited them from ascending to the 
 Belvedere, seeing that, under the pretence of looking 
 at the fireworks, that indispensable condition of 
 Neapolitan spectacles, their object was to make signals: 
 to the military quarter. They, strongly resenting 
 
THE "AKUNZIATA" OF CAPUA. 277 
 
 this, heaped against the Abbess's door a dozen of their 
 " pagliericci," and fired them, and as the straw died 
 down, took to leaping and dancing on the flames, 
 as the idle boys of Naples are in the habit of doing 
 when, at the street corners, they can set fire to the 
 refuse of some stable. As I beheld them in the dis- 
 tance, ragged and barefooted, with dishevelled hair, 
 and heard the horrible din they made, I seemed to 
 be looking on at the phantasmagoria of some infernal 
 sabbat of witches and demons. Meeting one of these 
 one day — the ringleader of every outrageous freak, 
 and who made more disturbance than all the rest, n 
 tall thin creature, whose tongue never ceased — I 
 begged her to remain, if she could, for a moment 
 quiet. She kissed my hand and said : 
 
 " Excellenza! I am purposely noisy and impertinent." 
 
 " You are jesting with me." 
 
 " Gnora n6 — I am impertinent — that I may get a 
 husband." 
 
 " I don't understand you ? " 
 
 " It's the case ; any one who doesn't play the dickens 
 here, runs the risk of dying an old maid. In this 
 Annunziata, they don't do as in that of Naples, 
 where the young men choose a wife, throwing a 
 handkerchief at the girl they fancy most. Here the 
 men (ugly or handsome, young or old, it matters 
 little) come to the parlour. The Superior calls every 
 one of us by name, one after another, until the article 
 
278 HENRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 suits the purchaser. Now you must know, that that 
 old knowing one calls those first who are the most 
 obstreperous — those who give her the most trouble — 
 to get rid of them sooner," 
 
 I could not resist laughing at such counter cunning. 
 And the next time I met the Superior, who had often 
 advised with me on the subject of managing that 
 pandemonium, I suggested the expedient of sum- 
 moning the girls, not capriciously, but according to 
 age ; avoiding by this means purposed bad conduct. 
 
 Every day one young girl used to come to my 
 room to wish me good morning — she was one of 
 the quiet and well conducted, but- pale and melan- 
 choly — she seemed to hide some mystery difficult 
 to guess at. I asked her if she sufl'ered from any 
 indisposition ; and at first she hesitated to answer ; 
 but afterwards, with much sighing and broken words, 
 she consented to reveal to me that she was the victim 
 of some sorcery. I took the office of trying to 
 persuade her that witchcraft was mere imposture, and 
 was not to be attended to ; but I saw that I was 
 only pounding water in a morter (pouring water into a 
 sieve), for the poor girl had got hold of this fixed idea. 
 I begged her to describe to me how she considered 
 herself bewitched, and she consented to relate the 
 whole matter to me. 
 
 " She had," she said, " for some years received the 
 attentions of so-and-so, who had gone temporarily to 
 
THE "ANUNZLiTA" OF CAPUA, 279 
 
 Naples with his employers. Before separating, as 
 he was now going to a distance from her, they were 
 desirous reciprocally of swearing inviolable fidelity. 
 But if the youth preserved his fealty, the Capuan 
 girl did not remain so true ; for, having formed 
 an intimacy with a sergeant, she violated her oath. 
 When this came to the ears of the former lover, 
 he hastened back to Capua, and, without betraying 
 his knowledge of her desertion of him, behaved to 
 her in his usual manner, invited her to dinner, and, 
 amongst otlier things presented her with some pastry 
 which he had brought from Naples. On the day 
 following, having assured himself that his disloyal 
 love had devoured his present, he threw ofif the 
 mask, and, confronting the traitress, exclaimed, with 
 triumphant virulence, "Now I am avenged — the 
 charm is working in you. Good-by ! " 
 
 From that day forth the intellects of the unhappy 
 girl began to give way ; an extreme confusion of 
 ideas and of feelings had brought her to that 
 lamentable state. 
 
 " But why should you persist in attributing to 
 witchcraft that which might be merely the effect of 
 a combination of circumstances : or, even if you wish, 
 to some poison put into that pastry ? " 
 
 " No ! No ! " she replied, " I have the devil in my 
 inside — I can't go into a church nor approach the 
 sacrament." 
 
2S0 . HESEIETtA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 " Come with me," I said — " I myself will take you 
 into the choir — your evil one will be afraid of me." 
 
 " No ! No ! Oh, for pity's sake, I cannot ; I 
 should die." 
 
 I caught her by the hand, and, almost dragging 
 her along, I forced her to descend the stairs. She 
 wept, she trembled ; she implored, and made con- 
 tinual struggles to free herself. After a long re- 
 sistance, redoubled when we had reached the door, I 
 finally succeeded in getting her in. I then forced her 
 down on her knees before the altar — with a frightful 
 shriek she bounded up again and fled. 
 
 Poor Naples ! an age will not suffice to extirpate 
 the ferocious superstition which besots you. 
 
THE ARREST. 281 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 THE AEEEST. 
 
 Sadly the days followed each other in my sojourn in 
 the Annunziata — sadder still the nights — my mind 
 full of the uncertain future. 
 
 I had collected together the necessary papers, and 
 Cassano wrote a long letter to accompany these to 
 the bishops and regulars in Eome. This eminent 
 prelate, in this epistle, supported my request for 
 secularization. He enumerated the wrongs and the 
 trials I had undergone, and animadverted on the 
 want of prudence of Riario, concluding a letter which 
 manifested a strong interest in my case with the 
 suggestion that possessing no natural disposition or 
 vocation for the veil, it was little less than a miracle 
 that I had not failed in the first duties of the mo- 
 nastic vows, when so reduced to a state bordering on 
 despair ; thence, seeing the fruitlessness of attempt- 
 ing to persuade me to pass the remainder of my life 
 
282 HENRIETTA CABACCIOLO. 
 
 in a cloister, he thought it but fitting and just that I 
 should lay aside the Benedictine dress, and clad 
 simply in black, reside as a single woman in the 
 house of my mother, with the title of canoness. 
 
 I read this letter in the presence of Cassano him- 
 self, and thanked him for it with the liveliest ex- 
 pressions which gratitude dictated to me. I saw it 
 enclosed with the other papers and sealed by the 
 hand of the vicar himself, who deposited it upon the 
 escritoire in readiness for the post, and with feelings 
 of great satisfaction I withdrew to the Annunziata 
 Maria Giuseppa's joy was unbounded. She thought 
 all was over, and so it was. On that night we sat up 
 until a late hour, calling up golden dreams of the 
 future. But of what use are projects, the most 
 matured and sound even, if events do not second 
 them. 
 
 Two days later it was announced to me that 
 Cassano was confined to his bed. This news appalled 
 me. In five days he was a corpse ! 
 
 And the letter ? — Upon the escritoire still ! And 
 the vicar ? — Suspended ! And the new provisional 
 Superior? — An enemy of Cassano! The Cardinal 
 Bucceedinsr ? — Cosenza ! 
 
 Farewell hope ! 
 
 What had I to do in Capua? I remained for 
 another fortnight there upon a bed of thorns : the 
 ex-vicar counselled me not to prolong my stay further 
 
THE ARREST. 283 
 
 as Uiario, knowing that I had been protected by 
 Cassano, would undoubtedly recommence his perqui- 
 sitions for a new series of persecutions. Besides, 
 I possessed no funds to try my fate in another 
 country. To meet my expenses I was forced to part 
 with my piano and other objects of value, 
 
 I therefore returned to Naples, and on the ensuing 
 day drove to the convent of San Niccola da Tolentino, 
 of the Padri della Missione, situated in the quarter of 
 San Carlo all' Arena. The Padre Spaccapietra re- 
 sided there, a man not less estimable on account of 
 his virtues than his learning, and who possessed much 
 influence in Eome, the centre of his missions. When 
 I had related to him all the circumstances of my case 
 I requested his advice and aid. Spaccapietra was 
 moved at my recital, and turning to my mother, who 
 had accompanied me, replied — 
 
 " I am inclined to think, madam, that the subject 
 of the arrest was a misapprehension on the part of 
 Greneral Turchiarola. This was not a case in which 
 to arrest a religieuse. It is permitted occasionally 
 to adopt this rigorous measure, but only when a nun 
 has given occasion for public scandal, and when she 
 canied in her bosom the proof of her guilty inter- 
 course. Have the kindness to give me your address. 
 I will seek an interview this day with his Eminence, 
 and later I will let you know the result of my 
 conference." 
 
284 HENRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 Reassured by the discourse of the excellent mis- 
 sionary I returned home, comforted with the hope 
 that Providence had not entirely abandoned me. 
 
 After the lapse of a few days the Padre came to 
 report to me the result of a long interview with the 
 Cardinal on the subject of my affair. 
 
 Riario had formally denied having gone to the 
 king and obtained the order for my arrest. 
 
 He lied ! yes ! absolutely lied ! 
 
 Spaccapietra had observed to him that he had no 
 power to deprive me of the proceeds of my dower. 
 Riario condescended to refund me the five months 
 interest due to me, and promised to leave me in 
 peace from thenceforth. 
 
 Some months of truce then passed by. My 
 mother, satisfied with seeing me freed from the 
 persecution of the priests, avoided giving the balls 
 and receptions which had been her habit each year 
 during the Carnival season. This determination was 
 highly satisfactory to me, resolved as I was to avoid 
 fresh annoyances, and to lead a retired life, divided 
 between study and household duties. And as the 
 acquirement of one's country's history seemed to me 
 a point of duty, not only to the men, but also to the 
 women of Italy of our day, I found means to procure 
 for myself the best authors on this branch of national 
 education. It was then that I perused MachiaveUi 
 Guiccardini, Botta, Santero, La CoUetta, and some 
 
THE ARREST. 285 
 
 accounts of the War of Independence of America, 
 and of the regeneration of the Greeks. 
 
 In the month of June one of my sisters, who 
 resided at Gaeta, wrote to say that her husband wys 
 seriously ill. My mother set out immediately for 
 that place. I did not accompany her. Ferdinand II. 
 was at that moment there, disgusted with his sojourn 
 in Naples, much as that descendant of Heraclius, the 
 assassin of his own brother, and the scourge of his 
 subjects, becoming disgusted with his capital and his 
 rule, fled to Sicily, haunted night and day by the 
 spectre of his murdered relative. When ray mother 
 left I went, together with Maria Giuseppa, to reside 
 with my other married sister, who lived in Naples. 
 
 She resided in the Vico Canale sopra Toledo, on 
 the sixth story, her means being very limited. Her 
 husband had been compromised in the convulsion of 
 1848, and suspended from exercising his profession as 
 a barrister, living in great pecuniary privation, and 
 under the surveillance of the Bourbon police. 
 
 My own restricted means, as well as the penury of 
 my brother-in-law, would not allow me to make use 
 of a carriage every time an urgent matter called me 
 out of the house ; and amongst such urgent occu- 
 pations was to be reckoned the distribution of the 
 secret correspondence of the members of a patriotic 
 society, at that time both efficacious and beneficent, 
 though superfluous if not even injurious at the 
 
286 HEXKIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 present time, an office which persons of the other 
 sex could not well assume without awakening the 
 suspicion of some of the innumerable spies which at 
 that period thronged the streets, the houses, and even 
 the churches of Naplea If then I was not enabled 
 to go out in a carriage, how was it possible for me to 
 walk in the streets in a Benedictine dress, in a city 
 where the idlers of it made it a point never to allow 
 a woman to pass unmolested by their impertinences. 
 I quitted the nun's dress and put on one of black 
 silk, such as Cardinal Cassano and many other 
 persons had sensibly advised me to do. 
 
 In the mean time Father Spaccapietra had set out 
 on a mission to Japan, leaving me as a remembrance 
 an " Imitation of Christ," and the memory of his 
 exemplary charity. On the evening of the 13th of 
 June, having retired to my room with Maria 
 Guiseppa, we passed a long time on the terrace in 
 recounting my various vicissitudes and trials in the 
 cloister, consoling each other, and rejoicing over pos- 
 sessing the power to breathe freely at last. AU around 
 us breathed tranquillity, prosperity, and freedom; 
 happiness reigned throughout. The warm air was 
 loaded with the perfume which the choice plants of 
 the Belvedere gave out, and the moon on high 
 pursued her solitary way, proud in her splendour, 
 through silver-edged clouds of wondrous form and 
 beauty. I felt new life in the thought that I had 
 
THK ARREST. 287 
 
 one© again recovered the position wliicli Providence 
 had at first assigned me, — to lend my slender aid to 
 the service of my fellow-creatures. But fortune, 
 which so often plays foul with human happiness, was 
 preparing to make me pay dearly for that momentary 
 gleam of felicity. 
 
 Maria Giuseppa, the most constant and faithful 
 sharer of my misfortunes, ventured her whole happi- 
 ness on her assurance never to abandon me as long 
 as I was unhappy. Who would have said that that 
 very evening was destined to be the last in which we 
 were to remain together. 
 
 On the day following, at one o'clock, I sat at 
 dinner with my relatives. There was a ring at the 
 door. An old female servant of my sister went to 
 the kitchen-window which looked out on the stairs, 
 and returning in a state of agitation, said a priest 
 stood there, who asked for me. Thinking that it 
 was the ex-vicar of Capua, who had come frequently 
 to see me, I said, " Let him come in." 
 
 But my heart, so long habituated to disasters, and 
 ready to presage evil, commenced palpitating violently. 
 
 I heard the tread, not of one, but of several 
 persons. I approached the door to listen, and 
 overheard my brother's voice in altercation with the 
 new comers. I went out, and beheld a man of 
 colossal size, enormous head, a face like a full moon, 
 a species of Briareus, occupying the divan, quite at 
 
288 HENRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 his ease ; by his side a priest of sinister aspect, 
 meagre, and livid hue, whilst my brother-in-law, 
 with an expression of utter consternation, appeared 
 to support himself with both his hands on the back 
 of a chair. Although perfectly unknown to me, 
 those two figures made me shudder. 
 
 The giant, putting his jaws in motion, asked in 
 a voice, not unlike the sound of a triton's shell, — 
 
 "Are you the Eeligieuse Henrietta Caracciolo 
 Forino ? " 
 
 " Yes," I replied ; " to whom have I the honour 
 of speaking ? " 
 
 " With the Commissary Morbilli." 
 
 God ! what name was that, I started as from 
 a violent electric shock, — that name was the terror 
 of all Naples. 
 
 The Duke MorbUli (poor nobility of the country of 
 Yico !), the faithful bloodhound of the king and 
 satellite of Del Caretto, had risen in reputation, less 
 by virtue of his most active services, than by the 
 terror of his visits, and by the mythological voracity 
 which characterizes them. What Neapolitan would 
 not rather have preferred to let into his house — I 
 will not say the Prince of Evil — but at least fire, 
 or smallpox, or any other human destruction, rather 
 than Morbilli. 
 
 " And this person," he continued pointino-, to his 
 associate, "this is a priest of the court." 
 
THE AREEST. 289 
 
 I understood all that awaited me. 
 
 " What do you want of me ? " I demanded, with 
 the manner of a Carbonaro surprised in flagrante 
 delicto by the Commissary. 
 
 " You are arrested." 
 
 "Arrested!— is it possible! Why?" 
 
 " Most certain ; and you must come with us." 
 
 "Where?" 
 
 "To a convent." 
 
 "To what convent?" 
 
 " The retreat of Mondragone." 
 
 " May I know by sentence of what tribunal, or, at 
 least, by whose order ? " 
 
 " That does not concern you." 
 
 There are critical moments in which the Almighty 
 inspires the weak with courage, that they may not 
 be trodden down by the tyranny of the stronger. ; 
 
 " It concerns me," I cried, " more than it regards 
 yourself. I will follow you, however. I go to dress 
 my>self." 
 
 Initiated in all the secrets of the thief-taker's 
 profession, MorbilH wished to satisfy himself whether 
 any evasion was possible from my room, and, seeing 
 but a single exit, he was pleased to permit me to 
 dress im liberty. I was followed by Maria Giuseppa, 
 whose extreme terror depriving her of speech, almost 
 of reason, effected the greatest confusion in mine, as 
 well as in her own dress. 
 
 u 
 
290 HENBIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 In half-an-hour we were both ready. " Don't be 
 so cast down," I said to her, caressing her lightly on 
 the cheek. " Compose yourself before you leave, the 
 room, so that these people may not have the satisfac- 
 tion of seeing you thus." 
 
 " You are right, Signora," she replied, and forced 
 a smile to please me, whilst with difficulty she 
 refrained from tears. 
 
 "You may proceed in advance," said the com- 
 missary to the priest; "the Signora has made no 
 resistance." 
 
 The Vampyre, making his bow, disappeared. Mor- 
 biUi turned to Maria Giuseppa, who, laden with 
 shawls and other objects, stood ready to follow me. 
 
 " And you — who are you ? " he asked. 
 
 " I am the lay-sister." 
 
 " You can't accompany the Signora to the con- 
 vent." 
 
 " Why ? " asked one, and " Why ? " asked the other 
 of us. 
 
 " The Signora will be taken to the Kitiro ; you 
 will come with me to the Commissariat to be 
 questioned there, and then sent to your country. 
 
 The cries, the shrieks, and wailings which the poor 
 young girl uttered, her frantic clinging to my person 
 as if for refiige and protection, then the groans and 
 despair she gave way to, nearly made me lose my self- 
 command. The emotion, only suppressed by a feeUng 
 
THE ARREST. 291 
 
 oi amour propre, so convulsed the muscles of my mouth, 
 that had I wished to speak I could not have done so. 
 
 The Commissary, calling up an inspector, who waited 
 at the door, gave her into his charge. I did not 
 utter a word for fear of bursting into tears, but only 
 gave Giuseppa a last farewell kiss, and begged the 
 old servant not to abandon her until she was sent 
 back to her country. Then turning to the Commis- 
 sary — 
 
 " I hope," I said, " that, knowing whose daughter 
 I am, you will not oblige me to make this transit on 
 foot." 
 
 " Nor prevent myself nor her sister accompanying 
 her," added my brother-in-law. 
 
 Morbilli, ordered a carriage to be brought, and 
 permitted my relatives to bear me company. Maria 
 Giuseppa, to the last, never ceased clinging to my 
 hands and covering them with kisses. 
 
 " Courage I " I said to her finally ; and, freeing 
 myself from her, was the first to go out. 
 
 The stairs were thronged with sbirri, as if the 
 object had been to surprise a horde of brigands in 
 their lair; and more than a hundred people had 
 gathered at the front door to enjoy the spectacle. 
 
 The church and edifice of "Santa Maria delle 
 Grazie di Mondragone," situated near San Carlo 
 alle Mortelle, form the retreat which Helen Aldo- 
 brandini, Duchess of Mondragone, prepared in 1653 
 
 u 2 
 
292 HEKRIETTA CAEACCIOLO. 
 
 for noble Neapolitan ladies who, reduced and 
 widowed, desired to lead a trq,nquil and monastic 
 life. At the present day there are some few pupils 
 annexed, but, in reality, the establishment is destined 
 as a house of correction. 
 
 Arrived there at a little before three, I ascended the 
 staircase which conducts upwards from the entrance 
 gate. At the second I found two priests posted, and 
 near them the Superior, who here is called the 
 Prioress. One of those priests was that spectre 
 whom Morbilli had taken with him at my arrest; 
 the other was the ecclesiastical Superior of the place, 
 the same who, by his furious reactionary deeds, left 
 in 1848 sad remembrance of his name. For his 
 immense devotion to the Bourbon dynasty he had 
 been decorated with the order of Francis I., and 
 styled himself no less than " Cavaliere." 
 
 From the scraping and bowing woich this latter 
 performed before the Commissary, and the words 
 which passed between them, I concluded that they 
 were acuqaintances of old standing — hounds in the 
 same leash. 
 
 My brother-in-law, who had up to this restrained 
 his rage, now broke out in bitter invectives against 
 the Cardinal. 
 
 "If you do not hold your tongue," cried the 
 ecclesiastical Superior, *'l will knock your words 
 down your throat" 
 
THE ARREST. 293 
 
 " If you don't go, and that at once, about your 
 business," followed the Commissary, "I will arrest 
 you." 
 
 I seized my brother by the arm, and shaking it 
 violently cried, — 
 
 " If I, who am the victim, remain silent, why need 
 you excite yourself? Take back my sister — we have 
 reached the prison." 
 
 All remained silent. The Commissary then re- 
 quired the receipt for my person, which was made 
 out by the priest, and he took his departure, and by 
 a sign I intimated to my sister that she should take 
 her leave for fear her husband might compromise 
 himself. 
 
 " Write at once to Gaeta," I said, as I embraced 
 her, " and for pity sake take the same care of Maria 
 Giuseppa as you would of myself." 
 
 Left alone with the sbirro and the two gaolers at 
 my side, I was made to mount up to the third story 
 of the building ; then they conducted me into a large 
 gloomy chamber, which had the look of an inquisition 
 room of torture. It was lit from two holes only ; the 
 light both scanty and dim on account of the immense 
 VUlanova Palace which stood opposite ; the walls 
 naked and filthy ; the ceiling with bare rafters ; the 
 pavement of broken tiles ; the entire furniture, two 
 rickety chairs — no more. 
 
 The Prioress and Superior left the room to 
 
294 HENRIETTA CAKACCIOLO. 
 
 converse in an under-tone. The priest of the court 
 alone remained with me. 
 
 This man, seeing me thus abandoned, deprived of 
 all protection, thought to ttim the opportimity to 
 some profit, and let me see the advantage of his 
 protection ; then said — 
 
 " Should you want anything, say so freely to the 
 Prioress, who feels much sympathy for you, as your 
 humble servant does also." 
 
 He accompanied this last phrase with a low bow, 
 and a diabolical smile, which exposed his horrid range 
 of teeth. 
 
 I turned on him in a fury of indignation, and, 
 pointing to the door, cried — 
 
 " Leave the room ! go, and tell the miscreant who 
 sent you here, that I trust to see both of you, and 
 those who resemble you, soon sent to perdition." 
 
 He slunk out of the room. 
 
 I knelt down, and, joining my hands together, and 
 raising my eyes to heaven, and my heart to God, I 
 prayed from the depths of my soul for my outraged 
 innocence. 
 
 The Almighty does not reject, but listens to the 
 humble and contrite heart. 
 
THE "EITIUO" OF MONDRAGONE, 295 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. ' 
 
 THE " EITIRO " OF MONDRAGONE. 
 
 Having been for a year and a half liberated from 
 the poisonous and damaging influence of isolation, re- 
 generated by the baptism of social intercourse, I felt 
 incomparably more severely the effects of the solitude 
 which now surrounded me ; not a solitary voice near 
 me, not a trace of living thought, no longer the grateful 
 sound of human occupation ; nothing else in my new 
 desert but the monotonous hum of flies, in contrast with 
 the hurricane which wasted wildly within me. 
 
 One prominent consideration occupied my thoughts 
 from the first. What authority had decreed my arrest ? 
 was it the ecclesiastical or civil? was I once more 
 the victim of Riario's aiiimo^ty and of his camorra ? 
 or was it haply an imputation of another character, 
 resulting from the spy system, which had thrown me 
 into the clutches of the political power ? The first was 
 probable, the second possible ; but more likely than 
 all was the connection of both. 
 
HENRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 In either case my position was most grievous, most 
 horrible. I was a woman. The world, ever too ready 
 with its suspicions and its evil speaking — ^how would 
 it have interpreted my sudden confinement in a 
 retreat whose equivocal reputation afforded a ready 
 handle to calumny? Transferred beyond all social 
 contact, what efficacious means could I have employed 
 to refute the false reports which the priests would not 
 fail to spread to the detriment of my reputation and to 
 palliate their own conduct ? 
 
 Before this last, unkindest stroke of fate, I failed to 
 find in intrepidity that moral energy which had hitherto 
 aided me to resist the blows of misfortune. To be a 
 man, were it but for a few days — to find myself in 
 London, in Paris, in America, in a free land, master of 
 no more than a pen and a few sheets of paper — I 
 felt as if I could have renounced a throne, had such 
 been at my disposition. 
 
 An hour later there was a gentle knock at the door. 
 I made no answer — it was repeated. I still remained 
 silent. On the third repetition I heard the voice of 
 the Prioress, who begged me to open it. 
 
 " Am I not mistress of even this hole ? " I replied 
 angrily. 
 
 " Yes, Signora, you are mistress ; but you should 
 open the door." 
 
 " Break it down if you like it. I won't open it." 
 
 The Prioress began to entreat me in humble tones, 
 
THE "EITIRO" OF MONDRAGONE. 297 
 
 justifying the disturbance she gave me by the necessity 
 of doing something for me. 
 
 I then opened it, and I saw her quite confounded 
 by the change I had since undergone. Two servants 
 carried a bed, a small table, and a light. 
 
 " Have the goodness to procure me writing mate- 
 rials," I said. 
 
 She made a grimace like a person who has an un- 
 pleasant communication to make, and, uttering the 
 sentence with hesitation, replied, — 
 
 " I am very sorry to inform you that reading and 
 writing are forbidden by the superiors until further 
 orders." 
 
 " I cannot then communicate even with my relations 
 by letter ? " 
 
 " That you may do, provided I read your letters 
 before they are sealed, and that I see the answers 
 before they are delivered to you." 
 
 " Is every book, without exception, prohibited me ? " 
 
 " We have several books of devotion here ; you can 
 read as many of them as you wish." 
 
 The circle of my existence became narrower and 
 narrower. I asked, " What were the precise orders 
 given on my account ? " 
 
 " Rigorous, most rigorous. You are forbidden to 
 see or to speak with any one whatsoever. You are 
 not to receive either parents, friends, or acquaintances, 
 or any extems who might come inquiring for you ; 
 
298 HENTIIETTA CAEACCIOLO. 
 
 nay, to take away every possibility of a clandestine 
 intelligence, you are prohibited to stand at the windows, 
 to mount the terrace, to enter the parlour ; nor will it 
 be permitted you to have any person attached to your 
 service." 
 
 " Pray what is this Ritiro called ? " 
 
 " The Ritiro di Mondragone." 
 
 " It would be better named the prison of the Holy 
 Office. Can you tell me further, if I am to be con- 
 fined for a lensi;h of time ? " 
 
 " Who knows ? You might remain two, three, five, 
 or ten years, at the will of the superiors. To accustom 
 yourself to bear it patiently, you must put a speedy 
 liberation out of your head." 
 
 " Don't conceal the truth from me, I entreat you. 
 Am I condemned for life ? " 
 
 " Address yourself to God, and think of your soul." 
 
 "Enough!" I cried. 
 
 And I fell senseless upon the floor. 
 
 When I again opened my eyes I found myself ex- 
 tended on the bed, and once more alone. I then 
 observed to my dismay a confusion in my ideas ; a 
 sluggishness in the reasoning powers, for which I could 
 not divine a cause. I was fully conscious of a warping 
 of the mental faculties ; but whence came that aberra- 
 tion ? was it the effect of my fainting ? was it from 
 excessive anguish ? or was it perhaps caused by the 
 contusion on the head in falling on the tiled floor? 
 
THE "ritieo" of mondragone. 299 
 
 The more effort I made to seize the helm of reason 
 which escaped my hand, the more I saw that this was 
 no longer in my power : my discernment was weakened, 
 my memory confused, all my faculties jumbled in 
 confusion; and in the midst of this chaos one fixed 
 idea predominated — one unvarying repeated image, 
 as an incessant sound of hammering — the man whom 
 I had loved passionately, Domenico, become a priest, 
 and in the garb of one in the act of reading to me my 
 sentence of death. 
 
 A phase in my existence, through an indeterminiate 
 period, dates from this moment, and continues oscillating 
 at intervals between reason and the total overthrow of 
 the mental faculties. 
 
 I will spare the reader the weariness that a recital of 
 my delirium would entail on him. Still in continuing 
 the thread of my narrative with the same exactness, 
 and bound not to permit any hiatus to occur in it, it 
 may be allowed me here to prefer a request, and that 
 is, that I may not be rendered responsible for any acts 
 committed in these moments — acts which as a faithful 
 narrator I must not conceal, but whose reprehensible 
 nature I myself am the first to deplore. 
 
 At dusk a lay sister entered with a light, followed by 
 the Prioress, furnished with salts and scent^bottles, 
 which she wished me to use. I told her that I had 
 devised a plan (and would put it into execution) to 
 
300 HENRIETTA CAEACCIOLO. 
 
 frustrate the publicity of my suffering. The profoundly 
 serious tone in which I said this caused her to laugh. 
 This was a woman under forty years of age, fresh and 
 vigorous still, and affable rather than otherwise. My 
 condition moved her much, and she was lavish of com- 
 passionate words, but equally tender of her office : she 
 looked for the approbation of her superiors in executing 
 their commands to the letter. Later a basin of soup 
 was brought me : I refused it. The night which fol- 
 lowed was the most cruel of my whole life — a real death 
 agony. I arose many times during it to renew a prayer 
 to God to preserve me my reason. As soon as it was 
 day they brought me coffee : I sent it away untouched, 
 as I did the dinner also. 
 
 At two o'clock my luggage was brought, and at the 
 same time the Prioress handed me a letter from my 
 sister, which had been previously opened by her. How 
 my sufferings were assuaged when I learned that Maria 
 Giuseppa, after her examination, had been consigned 
 to the care of her uncle ! My sister added that she had 
 already written to my mother, who, when she heard of 
 the occurrence, would not fail to demand an audience 
 of the king. My head whirled round, my hand refused 
 to write; nevertheless I managed to pen a few lines 
 to warn her that, for fear I should prefer a petition 
 to the pope or any other superior authority, my letters 
 were always opened — that she was therefore to take 
 care what she wrote. 
 
THE "EITIRO" OF MONDKAGONE. 301 
 
 The day following, the repulsive face of the ecclesiastic 
 reappeared at the door. At sight of it I felt ray blood 
 boil ; and wholly unable to restrain my indignation, I 
 broke out into invectives against the Cardinal and like- 
 wise the King. Strange reception for a director of 
 public censorship ! Don Pietro Calandrelli thought to 
 impose silence on me, as he did daily on the authors of 
 grammars and dictionaries. He well knows whether I 
 silenced him. 
 
 " I hold," I said, " the visit of an inquisitorial priest 
 as an insult. Liberate me then from your presence, if 
 you do not wish insult for insult." 
 
 " Your unjust anger," he answered, " will not permit 
 you to see that you outrage your benefactors. When 
 you have calmed down from this state of irritation, the 
 Cardinal will come and visit you." 
 
 I recoiled a step. 
 
 " Tell him," I exclaimed, " not to dare to come — at 
 the sight of him I should become a tigress," 
 
 The priest turned to the Prioress. 
 
 "She is mad, indeed !" he said — " Let us go." 
 
 This exclamation of the priest served to upset the 
 just balance of my ideas. " Am I then really mad ? " 
 I went saying to myself. 
 
 Four days now passed, during which I persevered in 
 refusing all aliment. A long wasting disease could not 
 have more deeply hollowed my cheeks ; my complexion 
 had become like bronze, the whites of my eyes like 
 
302 HENRIETTA CARACaOLO. 
 
 safiron. If I lay down in hopes of a truce to the hor- 
 ribly fixed idea which pursued me, I found myself again 
 before the image of Domenico, the priest, in the act of 
 expediting me to the gallows. In fine, without a single 
 ray of hope, infirm in body and mind, I invoked in- 
 cessantly either an immediate death or the restoration 
 of my liberty- 
 
 On the sixth day my weakness prevented my rising 
 from bed ; yet I would not consent to take the remedies 
 which the Prioress suggested. On the morrow the 
 doctor was sent for. It was Doctor Sabini, a man of 
 large heart, and, as I heard afterwards, a warm and 
 noble lover of his country. When he heard from the 
 Prioress the redtal of my woes, and how I persisted in 
 refusing all food — 
 
 " So much the better," he observed ; " fasting will 
 be serncealje rather than otherwise to her health. 
 When the fever has left her, we will make her eat" 
 
 He asked for pen and ink to write a prescription. I 
 detained his hand. 
 
 " You lose your time," I said ; " I am firmly resolved 
 to take no remedy. You, if motives of humanity bring 
 you here, I can welcome ; but if you come to give me 
 the aid of your art, I beg you will not come to me." 
 
 The morning of the eleventh day found me in a con- 
 dition of extreme prostration. I could no longer hfl 
 my emaciated arm, and tinted wlien I attempted to 
 i-aise my head from the pillow. My feebleness had 
 
THE "RITIRO" OF MONDKAGONE. 303 
 
 reached such a point, that, unable any longer to get out 
 of bed, I was prevented from bolting the door, as was 
 my custom. 
 
 Sabini, in order to save me, imagined a pardonable 
 equivocation. The governor of the Ritiro was a Carac- 
 dolo, Prince of Cellamare, whose physician Sabini like- 
 wise was. More than once he had told me that he had 
 spoken to the prince about me. One morning, then, he 
 arrived, smiling and rubbing his hands. 
 
 " Cheer up, Signora," he said ; " I bring you good 
 news." 
 
 Making an effort, I turned towards him. 
 " Yesterday evening the prince represented your case 
 warmly to the authorities, who are willing, as soon as 
 YOU are convalescent, to let you out." 
 
 My heart began to beat with such violence that I do , 
 not know how I escaped syncope. 
 
 " Then I shall be let free ? " I cried, making an eflPort 
 to recover my breath, and extending my hand to him. 
 
 " For certain ! " resumed he ; " and therefore it is 
 necessary for you to get up a little strength, since I 
 don't wish you to scare the people. Quick, Signora 
 Prioress ; make them bring some broth." 
 
 A moment afterwards the servant brought me some, 
 which the physician himself, supporting me with 
 pillows, made me take by spoonfuls. 
 
 At the third spoonful my sight became dim, and 
 
304 HENRIETTA CABACCIOLO. 
 
 before I could replace myself on the pillow I had re- 
 jected that most slender and meagre substance. 
 
 "Let us leaye her to repose," said Sabini; "the 
 prostration has got too much ahead. I will now pre- 
 scribe her a calming potion, which you will ^ve her 
 every half-hour." 
 
 I had allowed mvself to swallow the bait. The 
 words of the medical man had reanimated me more 
 than the broth and the prescription. The day follow- 
 ing I was better ; the apparitions still continued to 
 appal me, the effect of the mental disturbance ; but 
 hope — that supreme specific — what relief does it not 
 bring to the despairing ! After four days the improve- 
 ment was great. On the 6th Sabini made inquiries 
 for me at the Parlatorio, but did not come up. By the 
 end of the week I began little by little to take food ; 
 but in the mean time Sabini did not make bis appear- 
 ance. Complaining of this to the Prioress, I procured 
 his recall. 
 
 He came finally. When he had received the account 
 of my health, I asked him when my permission to get 
 out would be communicated to me. He replied eva- 
 sively ; he would not take away the hope of my re- 
 demption, and said he could not fix. the precise moment 
 .... Alas! in a short time I acquired the bitter 
 consciousness of- having been compassionately de- 
 ceived. 
 
THE "EITIRO" OF MONDEAGONE. 305 
 
 I wept as woman has never yet wept. I abandoned 
 myself again to the most boundless despair. I knew 
 not what desperate means to have recourse to ; but I 
 no longer possessed the courage to cut short my 
 wretched existence by starvation. 
 
 In this interval my mother had returned from Gaeta. 
 Informed by my sister that my letters underwent in the 
 parlour a similar fate to that which the public corre- 
 spondence underwent in all the post-offices of the 
 kingdom, she gave me an account of her mode of pro- 
 ceeding in terms totally unintelligible. The imbroglio, 
 however, did not discourage me ; knowing her proud 
 and resolute character, could I think that after receiv- 
 ing such an affront she was the woman to sit down 
 quietly under it ? 
 
 In one of my lucid intervals^ and these became more 
 frequent now, I asked of the Prioress who would take 
 the charge of my washing. She answered me that her 
 servants had not time for this. I therefore made up a 
 bundle of this to send it to my mother's house, taking 
 care to knot up in a corner of a pocket-handkerchief 
 a note, in which I asked an account of that which she 
 had done for me. 
 
 The clothes were returned three days afterwards, 
 and in the same manner I received an answer. My 
 mother wrote that she had had an audience with the 
 king, and also with the queen ; both had given her 
 the answer that she should address herself to the Car- 
 
 X 
 
306 HENRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 dinal Archbishop, as their Majesties were not in the 
 habit of mterfering in peligioua matters — they 
 deeming that playing on the organ or chanting vespers 
 was employment more suitable to a nun than con- 
 spiring openly with the enemies of the throne and the 
 altar. 
 
 There was no longer doubt now ; there was not one, 
 but two of the local powers in pursuit of me — the police 
 and the archiepiscopal. 
 
 To say the truth, the suspicions of the Bourbon police 
 were not altogether unfounded. Nature having allotted 
 to me warm feelings, a mobile imagination, a will 
 powerful enough to struggle against the seductions of 
 sentiment and the tide of habit, I had looked forward 
 to the restoration of liberty to my native soil before^ 
 even before the Roman history, and the annals of our 
 republics, had initiated me in her destinies. Books, 
 papers, the association with men of vigorous intellect, 
 above all the admirable example of other nations, 
 advanced beyond us in the career of civilization, caused 
 that sacred love of country to burn up within me. 
 From that point commenced my execration of the 
 imperial eagle and its petty satellite princes, the de- 
 moralization of our priesthood, the subservient cour- 
 tiership of our barons, with that hatred, that inexorable 
 hatred, which the Spaniard bears to the Moor, the 
 Greek to the Turk, the Pole to the Russian, and 
 the A^hole of Christendom to the Barbaresque privateen 
 
THE "RITIRO" OP MOSTDRAGONE. 307 
 
 Nor did I, ambitious to join the apostolate of so noble 
 a mission, cease from thenceforth to seek, under cover 
 of the cowl, that occult centre of operations which 
 might better bring into exercise my powers of working. 
 I knocked for long, and heard no response — finally the 
 door was opened to me. Then came those moments of 
 exaltation and enthusiasm during which I had the 
 arrogance to believe that, if every woman would think 
 and feel as I did, not a single barbaric enemy 
 would have descended into Italy ; or at least that Italy 
 would have long ago cast off the devastating yoke of 
 tyranny. 
 
 The suspicions of the police, then, were not without 
 some foundation ; but who had put them on my track ? 
 I know not, nor does it concern me to know. However 
 it was, I lost every hope of seeing the light again. 
 
 Superadded to these uncomfortable reflections was 
 another of a still more irritating nature. Having 
 resisted the reiterated orders of the Curia to assume 
 the monastic habit, I received a peremptory command 
 to resume the scapulary within three days, under the 
 alternative of seeing myself confined in a provincial 
 retreat, and passing the rest of my life in hopeless 
 separation from my relations and the world. 
 
 Must I again put on that odious badge of sloth, of 
 ignorance, and selfishness raised to the dignity of a 
 profession ? To fall back for ever, and without hope of 
 ransom, under the rod of an ignorant and bigoted 
 
 X 2 
 
308 HENRXETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 abbess — bury, in the rottenness of a walled and grated 
 cloister, the voice of reason, of heart, and of will ! At 
 this horrible thought my poor mind, already shaken to 
 its centre, received its last blow. 
 
 It was the night of the 16th of July, an hour before 
 midnight. After having knelt at the foot of my bed 
 and ofiFered up the prayer of the dying to the Divine 
 mercy, I wrote a last letter to my mother, a letter of 
 deep affection, and bathed with my tears. 
 
 I said : " Ah ! none can believe in the immensity of 
 my sufferings who have not partaken of them. To 
 exist and to believe you are dreaming ; that endless 
 struggle to surmount the billow which overwhelms and 
 is annihilating you, without a hope to reach the 
 brink ; that living burial, that waking to the sensation 
 of being nailed within the darkness of the bier. Oh, 
 mother ! believe me these are horrible sufferings ! 
 Dear mother, this life which you gave me, only for me 
 a state of torment, — of what value is existence if it is 
 deprived of liberty, of conscience ; if it is condemned 
 to atrophy, whilst the other creatures of God breathe 
 their native element free, prosperous, and healthy as the 
 birds of the air ? Be, then, the first to pardon me and 
 defend my memory, when the only trace which I leave 
 to the world of myself will be your commiseration." 
 
 I have mentioned that in a corner of my trunk some 
 objects were concealed which escaped the search of the 
 priests. These were a bundle of revolutionary papers 
 
THE "EITIRO" OF MONDRAGONE. 309 
 
 an cipher, a dagger, and a pistol, objects belonging to 
 one of my brothers-in-law, and consigned by him to my 
 care at the time I was in the " Conservatorio di Co- 
 stantinopoli." 
 
 Having finished the letter, which, all wet with tears, 
 I laid open on the table, I opened the trunk, drew forth 
 the stiletto, and plunged it in my side. 
 
 Oh, you who read I do not condemn me, pity me ; 
 bear in mind my sufferings ; put yourself in my un- 
 happy state, and weep with me, who, even as I write of 
 this horrible moment, feel myself profoundly moved. 
 Ah, yes ! I had so suffered that the light of reason 
 had gone out. Forgive me, reader ; as I hope God 
 has forgiven me. 
 
 But it was not written that I was to die in a paroxysm 
 of frenzy — a suicide. I lived, I wept, I suffered still j 
 and, praise to the Divine mercy, I survived that era of 
 ignominy and servitude. 
 
 The agitation I had gone through had so weakened 
 and unnerved me, that my trembling hand gave little 
 force to the blow ; a piece of whalebone in my dress 
 caused the stiletto to glance off, and without penetrat- 
 ing merely lacerated the skin. But the cold steel 
 sent a thrill of horror through me, and the blood 
 which I lost (though the wound was slight) brought me 
 to my senses. 
 
 Is not the instinct of self-preservation also part of 
 
310 HENRIETTA CABACCIOLO. 
 
 the Divine law ? The internal voice which cries to the 
 desperate, " Preserve thyself! " may it not he that of 
 some guardian angel sent by Heaven ? 
 
 The weapon fell from my hand, and I sank trembling 
 on a chair. 
 
 The priests, not satisfied with having cowled me 
 anew, wished also to fix on me a confessor, a religieux 
 of their own selection and confidence, the Father 
 Qnaranta, an Augustinian. As it was an affair of a 
 lost soul, whose conversion would not fail to be asmhed 
 to miracle, they chose him as one who, having risen 
 into high reputation for irresistible eloquraice, and in 
 odour of sanctity, would easily have overcome any 
 resistance. I was determined I would not go into the 
 confessional. Quaranta was therefore conducted to 
 my room every day in spite of me, and at indeterminate 
 hours. 
 
 He was a little old man, whose memory was quite 
 gone, driving full sail towards dotage. He was so 
 much taken up with the devotional ardour with which 
 he made his recitations in a run like a musical snuff- 
 box that he forgot my objections from one moment to 
 the other. I protested against this annoyance. I 
 was answered that I could not be exempt from the 
 daily catechising of the confessor : they would, how- 
 ever send me a certain Cutillo, who enjoyed the same 
 reputation as Quaranta.. 
 
THE "BITIRO" OF MONDRAGONE. 311 
 
 " Since you cry him up so much, you can keep him 
 for yourselves ! " I answered the Superior. " If I must 
 confess, it will be to one of my own and not your 
 choice." 
 
 The priest bit his lip. 
 
 The Prioress had spoken to me of an old canon in 
 the neighbourhood who frequently came to say mass 
 in the church of the Ritiro, and at each time made 
 inquiries for both my moral and bodily health, and 
 would compassionately recommend me to the kind 
 offices of the Prioress. I knew him by reputation for 
 a learned and prudent man, and of unimpeachable 
 probity. I begged the Prioress then to call him for 
 the purpose of confessing me. He sent for answer that 
 he accepted the duty, provided I had no intention of 
 availing myself of his mediation vith the Superior of 
 the Neapolitan Church. 
 
 I let him know that it was far from my thoughts 
 to humble myself before that Superior. He came. 
 
 But the choice of this eminent man was disapproved 
 of by his Eminence as well as by the ecclesiastical 
 Superior of the establishment, and for this reason, — 
 the Canon was a Christian in heart and conscience ; 
 he was a minister in the service of suffering humanity, 
 and not the tool of a ferocious caste. They, on the 
 other hand, were far his inferiors as well in purity 
 of life as in talent and learning. It followed, then, 
 
312 HENRIETTA CAEACCIOLO. 
 
 that the conduct of the superiors being diametrically in 
 opposition to the sentiments of the subaltern, the first 
 would have in vain attempted to penetrate into the 
 heart of the penitent through means of the latter. 
 Only, ashamed themselves of a disapproval which 
 nothing could justify, they were constrained to recall 
 him : and for that reason I experienced through the 
 sincere consolations bestowed on me by that good man 
 the proof that Heaven had not entirely withdrawn its 
 clemency from me. 
 
 But, I repeat, one misfortune brings another. 
 
 General Saluzzi, who had on so many occasions 
 given me proofs of an almost paternal affection, was, 
 after these last events, so severely reprimanded for 
 protecting a nun who was conspiring against the Prince 
 and rebelling against the will of the Church, that he 
 dared no longer call himself my friend. Besides this 
 loss, I experienced another which caused me no little 
 mortification, — the King suspended my annual allow- 
 ance of sixty ducats, the only means of support left to 
 me. From that time, notwithstanding the help my 
 family gave me, I suffered great privations. Being 
 obliged to do everything for myself, and not being 
 accustomed to those acts of servitude, for a whole 
 summer I contented myself with bread and a little 
 fruit, with the exception of Sunday, when I allowed 
 myself a little meat. For the first six months ray 
 
THE " RITIRO " OF MONDRAOONE. 313 
 
 solitude was unbroken, with the exception of a few 
 visits at first from my doctor ; for that whole period 1 
 saw no other human face but those, most unwelcome, 
 of priests, monks, and nuns. I therefore shut myself 
 up in my own room,' and remained completely isolated. 
 One only means 1 had of communicating with the 
 outer world : this was the bag which contained my 
 washing, and by means of this valuable messenger 
 and confidant I kept up a correspondence with my 
 mother. 
 
 With the aid of a few chosen books what weary 
 hours would have been spared, what sadness dissipated, 
 what moments of mute terror banished I Deprived of 
 that harmless solace, I was driven to the literature with 
 which Mondragone was furnished, and I do not regret 
 having had recourse to it, for there I found the ' Vita 
 delle Sante Martiri,' a most interesting book, which 
 I read and re-read, and always with delight and in- 
 struction. The chaste poesy, the pure and holy zeal 
 of that Christian era softened and calmed me. Ad- 
 mirable age ! in which woman, elevated by ardent faith 
 by hope, by charity, not only disputed with man his 
 privilege of heroism, but by the sacrifice of her youth, 
 her beauty, her substance, and her own existence, by 
 the practice of every virtue, knew how to eclipse the 
 learning of schools and the lucubrations of theologians ! 
 And who can deny that one of the most wonderful 
 prodigies of Christianity was this new devotion of 
 
314 HENRIETTA CAEACCTOLO. 
 
 woman to the reformation of society and to the eleraiioa 
 of human nature? And this faith, this self-denial, 
 which draws woman forth from the gynaeceum to lead 
 her all glorious to the stake, is it not more worthy 
 of admiration than that heroism* through favour of 
 which the names of Epaminondas and Scipio are cele- 
 brated in the pages of Plutarch ? I would that our 
 maidens would turn daily and nightly to these for 
 example. What might not the woman of our own day 
 dare, if, taking that faith as her model, she laid as an 
 offering of firstfruits the flower of her affection upon 
 the altar of her country ! Instead of writing romances 
 which enervate our mind with ephemeral emotions, 
 sapping its strength with effeminate sentiments, and 
 rendering sterile all our aspirations, let her try rather 
 to invigorate the heart with fruitful thoughts and virile 
 sentiments. It is thus that you will awaken from the 
 slothfiilness in which you lie ; it is thus that you will 
 prepare yourselves to share in the great work of 
 civilization ! 
 
 But let me resume the thread of my narrative. 
 
 For some time our clandestine correspondence pro- 
 ceeded with regularity. I found in the handkerchief a 
 despatch of the following import : — 
 
 "Try to obtain an interview with the Apostolic 
 Nuncio ; he is a man of honour ; you can do it by 
 letter, which you will send through me." The inter- 
 view was asked for and granted at once. The Nuncio 
 
THE "EITIRO" OF MONDEAGONE. 315 
 
 came to Mondragone the moment he had received my 
 Jetter. 
 
 On: the announcement of a visit from so eminent a 
 functionary of the Holy See, the whole Ritiro was in 
 exdtement. The Prioress, who had a propensity for 
 arrogating to herself all visits of distinction, ran in all 
 haste to the parlour. But what was her astonishment 
 when she heard that the minister of the high Pontiff 
 asked for her prisoner ? In her embarrassment as to 
 whether she should allow me to descend to the parlour, 
 or rather respect the prohibition of it, the poor woman 
 stood petrified, and did not know what to reply to the 
 functionary. I, who was waiting in expectation of that 
 visit, the moment I perceived an unusual commotion 
 tlirough the passages, darted out of my room and 
 rushed down the stairs, knocking against the nuns, 
 who looked at me in bewilderment. I rapidly passed 
 into the parlour, saying to the Prioress, in a high 
 tone — 
 
 " Your concerns require you elsewhere. I request 
 you to leave me alone with his Excellency." 
 
 Utterly confused, she retired, after an obeisance to 
 the Nuncio, calling him " Signor Dottore," and mut- 
 tered, as she turned away, " She is gone mad again for 
 a certainty ! " 
 
 The Nuncio was a man in the prime of life, and of 
 most polished manners. He expressed the utmost 
 astonishment at the recital of my Odyssey, but, not pos- 
 
316 HENRIETTA CAEACCIOLO. 
 
 sesang any direct jurisdiction over the Ritiro, he ex- 
 pressed sincere regret not to be able to afford me the 
 aid which my sufferings were entitled to. Notwith- 
 standing he did not take his leave without first assuring 
 me that he would put in motion every means to obtain 
 for me, if not an immediate release, at least a diminu- 
 tion of the rigours of my confinement. As I re- 
 ascended the stairs, I saw the Prioress in a state of 
 consternation, and in consultation with her nuns. I 
 approached the group. 
 
 " Do not give yourself any uneasiness about what 
 has happened," I said ; " you can send to inform the 
 Cardinal that I broke my arrest myself." 
 
 This tone of mockery was nothing new to the 
 Prioress. I had been in the habit for a long time of 
 treating them with ridicule, for I recollected the saying 
 of that baggage at Capua, " Only be ill-behaved, and 
 you will get your husband." 
 
 The Prioress announced the infraction to the Supe- 
 rior priest, and he was the first who mounted up to me, 
 snorting fire and flame. 
 
 I received him seated and laughing. 
 
 " How have you dared to descend to the parlour, 
 notwithstanding the orders of the Archbishop ? Do 
 you know, you refractory woman, that, having taken 
 the vows, you are bound to give blind obedience to 
 your superiors ? " 
 
 " In what Evangelist is it written that our Lord has 
 
THE "KITIEO" OF MONDRAGONE, 317 
 
 given me for Superior the Reverend Don Pietro Calan- 
 drelli ? " 
 
 " I am your Superior in the name of the Holy Catho- 
 lic Church." 
 
 " What do you imply by the Holy Catholic Church ? " 
 
 " I imply the mistress of kings, the representative of 
 God upon earth. I mean the Holy See, and the whole 
 of Catholicism which obeys it." 
 
 " With your permission, I do not believe in the 
 Holy See." 
 
 " Then you are not a Catholic." 
 
 " If that which you call Catholicism, which in the 
 hands of pope, cardinals, and other priests, is no other 
 than a trade, a machine to produce ignorance and ser- 
 vitude, I for certain would not be Catholic." 
 
 " What would you be then ? " 
 
 " A Christian — and somewhat of a gainer." 
 
 " How horrible ! how horrible ! " he cried. " Is it 
 possible you are a Protestant ? " 
 
 " A Schismatic ! " chimed in the Prioress. 
 
 " Neither one nor the other," I resumed. " I would 
 be a Christian of that sect which is in favour of the 
 civilization, the happiness, and welfare of the people. 
 That is my confession of faith, which will be the creed 
 too of future generations." 
 
 " You are an impious, a sacrilegious woman. 
 Prioress, I recommend you to look well that the con- 
 
318 HENRIETTA CAKACCIOLO. 
 
 tagion of such Satanic opinions may not infect the inno^ 
 cent minds of your Ritiro." 
 
 " You need have no fear," I added ; " a few years 
 more, and these young minds will have discovered and 
 learned to al>hor youc impostures as I have." 
 
 We were, however, still far £stant from such a 
 consummation. The Ritiro waa composed aknoat 
 entirely of young women so nursed in bigotry, and so 
 bare of all good iastruction, that the^ hardly knew 
 how to write. And how could it be othemiae, ^en 
 Calandrelli was the coQea^e of the notorious Mon- 
 signore Francesco Saverio Apuzzo ? These adolescents 
 every time they passed my door would repeat with a 
 BJgh of unction — 
 
 "Madonna delle Grazie, save her soul — turn her 
 heart!" 
 
 The Superior in tiie mean time went hunting about 
 to discover by what means I had been able to transmit 
 my letter to the Nuncio. One by one the lay-sisters 
 were interrogated, but nothing was elicited. At last 
 the bundle for the wash excited some suspicion, and 
 the inquisitor, setting aside every sense of decency, 
 ordered the Prioress to inform him the first time that 
 my clothes were to be sent home. Of course this was 
 done, and this Cavaliere of the Order of Francesco I., 
 kneeling on one knee on the floor, had the effi'ontery 
 to untie with his own hand the bundle, and to 
 
THE "ritiro" of mondragone, 319 
 
 spread out separately each article of my soiled 
 clothing. 
 
 But I, who was prepared for this perquisition, had 
 taken care to lay a trap for him. In the corner of 
 a pocket-handkerchief his Reverence found a letter 
 addressed to my mother. 
 
 Chuckling with delight, he got up, and with a hand 
 tremhling with impatience unfolded the " corpus 
 delecti." 
 
 " At last we've got the rat in the trap I" said he to 
 the Prioress, and commenced reading it aloud. 
 
 At the fourth line he turned pale ; when, half-way 
 through, his voice died away, and his eyes only con- 
 tinued the reading; 
 
 In that paper I had written every infamy I knew 
 of him. I called him a drunkard, a shameless priest, 
 a seducer, a rude brute ; and amongst other things 
 I mentioned the fact that he was in the habit of coming 
 every day after dinner in a state of intoxication, and 
 would summon now one and then another of the nuns 
 into his own room, and would remain there for a 
 considerable space tete-a-tete under the pretext of her 
 helping him to recite his Offices. 
 
 The letter was furiously torn in pieces ; and on the 
 morning after this farce the Prioress came to tell me 
 how his Eminence, at the instance of the Nuncio, 
 desirous that I should participate in the effect of his 
 inexhaustible clemency, extended to me the permission 
 
320 HENRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 to go down to the parlour, and to deliver my letters 
 sealed into the hands of my mother's footman. In the 
 mean time my excellent confessor did not fail to visit 
 me two or three times a week. I conferred with, or 
 rather disputed at full length with him the prindpal 
 points of ecclesiastical discipline, and concerning the 
 degree of respect which the present age should bestow 
 on the authority of the past. He required amongst 
 other things that I should not only forget the offences 
 of my enemies, but that I should moreover love them 
 with sincerity, and become one of them. It being 
 now no longer in my power to pass the abyss which 
 separated me from monachism, he refused to give me 
 absolution, as well as administer the Sacrament. 
 
 About this time I again entertained the idea of 
 writing to Rome ; and this friend, who did ever3^ing 
 to calm me, undertook that my application should 
 reach its destination with certainty. On obtaining 
 this promise, I penned a fresh petition ; in which I 
 requested directly of his Holiness one of two things — 
 either secularisation, or the permission to go in person 
 to lay my reasons before the pontiff. 
 
 I did not receive an answer imtil after months of 
 waiting, and what an answer ! The Holy Father 
 neither granted me the permission to betake myself 
 to Rome, nor the indulgence of secularisation. The 
 utmost he condescended to permit me was a dispensa- 
 tion for the future from the confinement of the cloister. 
 
THE "EITIRO" OF MONDRAGONE. 321 
 
 This last concession gave me at least the hope to get 
 out in the same manner as I did when in the Con- 
 servatorio di Costantinopoli. I therefore sent to 
 demand of the archbishop from what day it would be 
 allowable for me to go out during the morning. 
 
 " I cannot permit it," was his reply. " It is a ritiro 
 for others, but a cloister for her." 
 
 At this answer I had no longer command of myself. 
 Two years and a half had elapsed since my entrance 
 into that den. I arranged a plan for flight, taking 
 England or America as my goal. In either one or 
 the other of these free lands I should have found 
 brothers and companions in exile ; my wishes gave 
 the preference to that which contained the ashes of 
 Foscolo. 
 
 The portress, at a very early hour in the morning, 
 was in the habit of going down to open the street door, 
 and, then returning, would shut the one above, thus 
 leaving the intervening staircase deserted during this 
 act. About half-way down^this stair stood the doors 
 of the parlours. I could have followed close behind 
 the portress without her being aware of this, and, whilst 
 she was occupied in opening the large door, I could 
 have concealed myself in one of the parlours ; having 
 taken the precaution to deposit before daylight a bonnet 
 with a thick veil, and a shawl, in the drum which was 
 there. When the portress came up again, I should 
 be thus shut out ; and having stripped oif my tunic, 
 
 Y 
 
6/2 HENRIETTA. CARACCIOLO. 
 
 should appear in a coloured dress, already put on for 
 this purpose — the bonnet and shawl would have com- 
 pleted the disguise. A lady of my acquaintance would 
 have waited for me in a neighbouring street, called the 
 Rampe di Brancaccio. From the Piazza del Vasto a 
 carricige would have taken me to the Molo, and thence 
 I could have embarked without delay on board an 
 English vessel which lay in the harbour. My project, 
 easy of execution, was a secret to all, with the excep- 
 tion of the lady above-mentioned, who, after she had 
 escorted me on board, would have returned to my 
 mother with a letter from me. 
 
 But esteeming my worthy confessor to be a man in- 
 ciipable of betraying a secret, I desired to impart to 
 him the resolution I had taken, so that he might know 
 how to act after my flight 
 
 My plan displeased him, and he condemned it as both 
 imprudent and hazardous. 
 
 " No," said he, " you, a woman, and still young, and 
 a mm, you should not expatriate yourself, to find refiige 
 in distant lands, without means of existence, without 
 guide or protection ; your enemies would triumph at 
 this. Eemain, my daughter, and listen to the counsi;! 
 of an old man who takes the deepest interest in you." 
 
 These accents went deep into my heart, as those of a 
 minister estimable for wisdom and of rare probity. 
 
 "But, my father," I answered, '-reflect that you 
 speak to a dying woman who wants but extreme 
 
THE "RITIEO" OF MONDRAGONE, 323 
 
 - unction. Do I say, to a dying woman ? — it is to a 
 corpse ! " 
 ■ " Any other means let us try, but not this." 
 
 "And what?" 
 
 " Why not rather commission some relative to go to 
 Rome, who may plead for you ?" 
 
 Discouraged from my fixed design, this one was not 
 to be rejected, the rather as there always remained for 
 me the alternative of flight : but to what relative could 
 I entrust such an oflSce ? And the necessary expenses ? 
 — God would provide them. 
 
 After long reflection, I remembered a maternal aunt 
 who had been brought up in Bologna, a woman en- 
 dowed with singular energy, who would, better than any 
 one else, have assumed such a charge. My aunt 
 accepted it willingly ; my mother and sisters provided 
 the necessary expenses, and I gave her copies of all the 
 papers I was in possession of, all obtained hitherto in 
 vain, and, in addition, the certificate of the two phy- 
 sicians of the Comunita of Mondragone, which, if it be 
 not displeasing to the reader, I will here transcribe, that 
 he may be made aware of both the moral and physical 
 condition I was in at that time. 
 
 "In the month of June, 1851^ we, the undersigned, 
 were, honored with the request of the Communita of the 
 Royal ' Ritiro ' of Mondragone, to visit the noble lady 
 Donna Henrietta Caracciolo di Torino, suffering under 
 the attacks of nervous disease. We considered it our 
 
 T 2 
 
324 HENRIETTA CARACaOLO. 
 
 duty to submit her state and case to the strictest inres- 
 tigation, observing and collecting with all possible dili- 
 gence all the necessary indications which precede and 
 accompany these convulsive attacks. After seeing the 
 patient on several occasions, we were enabled to observe 
 that these nervous disturbances have for their centre 
 the cerebral system, a violent pain in the head being 
 the first manifestation, succeeded by rigors invading 
 the whole person. Then ensue frightful and most 
 painful spasms, not only of the superior articulations 
 (those of the neck principally), but likewise those of the 
 inferior extremities, all these being contorted in a thou- 
 sand extravagant forms, so that the assistance of 
 several strong persons is required to retain her during 
 an access, in order to avoid disastrous consequences 
 from the violence of these fits. 
 
 " On one occasion during our morning visit, the 
 patient was suddenly seized with one of these convulsive 
 attacks, which was so violent and of such long duration 
 that fears were entertained of a fatal termination to it ; 
 the pulse having become imperceptible, indicating a 
 total stoppage of the heart's action ; a deadly pallor 
 and coldness of the entire body, and deglutition alto- 
 gether impeded. 
 
 " The excellent Prioress and other reliffieuses were 
 present at the same time during this sad spectacle. 
 The duration of these convulsions is ordinarily from 
 three to four hours. They then pass off slowly, sue- 
 
THE "ErriEO" OF MONDRAGONE. 325 
 
 ceeded by delirium and violent contortions of the body, 
 followed by a species of extasis. 
 
 " These attacks are frequently repeated, and always 
 with the same phenomena as above described. Ob- 
 serving these, it was a natural inference to suspect that 
 besides physical causes operating, there were likewise 
 moral, which tended principally to keep up such a state 
 of disease. We therefore, on one occasion, took the 
 liberty of enquiring of the patient herself what were 
 the mental preoccupations which seemed to aflBiict her 
 so heavily ? She confessed to us that her mind was in 
 a state of violent and painful excitement, caused by 
 her remaining shut up in a cloister, of which she ex- 
 pressed her abhorrence. 
 
 " In such distressing cases we, as well as many others 
 of the leading professors of the capital, have used all 
 that the heahng art could do or suggest, but always 
 fruitlessly. We must even admit that the suflFerer, after 
 the application of these expedients, has rather grown 
 worse than improved. Then, in order to guard against 
 the patient's passing into a still worse state — that of 
 absolute insanity, with which she is threatened, as may 
 be judged from her actual and incessant moody fits, 
 the wildly-staring eyes, and the continual cerebral ex- 
 citation — we think and believe, as do all others of our 
 coUeasrues, that she should abandon the claustral life, 
 it being one which tends essentially to foster and keep 
 up that state of disease above described, which must 
 
326 HENRIETTA CAEACCIOLO. 
 
 nfallibly degenerate into one more disastrous still, as 
 we have already said. 
 
 " This declaration has been penned with the most 
 scrupulous conscientiousness, under the impression that 
 it was our duty to narrate minutely all the sufiPerings of 
 our patient, in order to avert a worse state for her. 
 
 (Signed) "Pieteo Sabini, 
 
 Consulting Physician of the Establishment. 
 
 " AlESSANDEO PaEISI, 
 Physician to the Establishment. 
 
 " Na:fiet, 23rd January, 1853." 
 
A BRIEF EESPITE, 327 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 A BRIEF EESPITE, 
 
 In the last week of January my aunt set out for Rome, 
 and from her first letters I began to build fresh hopes. 
 Matters progressed favourably ; but who does not know 
 of the intricate delays of the Courts of Rome, where to 
 obtain even a preliminary audience requires often the 
 waiting for many weeks or months ? 
 
 In the following month of March my mother fell 
 seriously ill of bronchitis. The information on her 
 state, which I sent for twice each day, represented her 
 as always getting worse. Most anxious to see her, and 
 deeming myself exonerated from claustral severity, I 
 • hoped that in so urgent and painful a circumstance I 
 should be allowed this indulgence. I sent to the Cardinal 
 to ask it. He answered, with imperious curtness, " No ! " 
 
 The Princess Rlpa went to him to implore an act of 
 humanity, which not only a chief of a Christian church, 
 but the most fanatical mufti of Constantinople, would 
 
328 HEXRIETTA CARACCIOLO, 
 
 have hastened to grant. The compassionate lady pro- 
 mised she would come and fetch me in her close car- 
 riage ; that when I had received the last words of my 
 dying parent, she herself would on that same day re- 
 conduct me to Mondragone. She entreated, she urged, 
 and supplicated him in terms which moved all present ; 
 and concluded by saying that the daughter, herself ill, 
 would die of anguish, without receiving the last blessing 
 of her mother. His Eminence answered, — 
 
 " Let her die. She shall get out no more." 
 
 On the day following, the mediation of the Nuncio 
 was joined to the solicitations of the Princess. He, by 
 a spontaneous act of philanthropy, constituted himself a 
 guarantee for my return to the Ritiro. His Eminence 
 answered anew, " No." 
 
 My mother breathed her last with the grief of being 
 unable to give a last embrace to the most aflSicted of 
 her daughters. 
 
 I wrote a letter to my aunt in Rome on the subject 
 of this — a letter flooded with tears ; which she, using 
 address and tact, managed to put into the hands of 
 several cardinals. The tone of deep affliction in which 
 it was written made much impression on these dig- 
 nitaries, who were all agreed that this harshness on the 
 part of Riario was the result of nothing less than some 
 personal matter. 
 
 Shortly afterwards, the above-cited declaration of 
 the medical men was sent to him from Rome, with the 
 
A BRIEF RESPITE. 329 
 
 usual demand for his opinion. The answer was as 
 usual negative ; but, as my boat's sail had begun to catch 
 the wind, it was intimated to him by some persons of 
 that court who were favourable to me, that he himself 
 should select a medical man in his own confidence to 
 draw out another certificate. His report by this means 
 was altogether annulled. 
 
 And yet this prelate was at that moment acquiring a 
 marked popularity. During the prevalence of the 
 cholera he made ostentatious pretence and profession of 
 his sympathy for the sick, so that our credulous popu- 
 lace, disposed more than any other to put faith in the 
 marvellous, pushed their admiration of him to the 
 extent of attributing miracles to him. This charitable 
 soul, this vessel of election, had only to extend his 
 hand over the head of the stricken man to drive away 
 the disease not only from his body but from his house 
 likewise. 
 
 Riario then began to perceive that, from my having 
 at last found some good protection in Rome, my good 
 fortune had begun to rise ; and, as it did not seem 
 prudent for him to interpose other serious difficulties, 
 he began to turn about — to temporise ; but finally driven 
 to straits, he decided that the certificate should be made 
 either by Professor Ramaglia or Giardini. 
 
 The first begged to decline, the second came. 
 
 "I am ready to give not only one but an hundred 
 guch certificates as your adviser has made," said he, 
 
330 HENEIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 after having subjected me to a long and minute exami- 
 nation. " The inhumanity of which you are the victim 
 would rouse abhorrence even in a savage. If my cer- 
 tificate can procure you an alleviation of your suf- 
 ferings, be assured of receiving that, and at once. The 
 free air is as necessary to you as bread. Where do 
 you desire to go ? " And he stood with the pen in his 
 hand. 
 
 To withdraw myself from the diocese of Eiario, I 
 proposed the baths of Castellamare, and the medical 
 men approved the choice. On the same day I 
 despatched the certificate to the archbishop, who, not 
 knowing what he could do further, was constrained to 
 forward it to Kome; not, however, without accom- 
 panying it with a letter from himself full of venomous 
 doubts and insinuations. 
 
 The person in Rome who had taken up my case was 
 in search of some point which would help him to bring 
 my application to a happy conclusion. Now in reading 
 this last epistle of the archbishop's frequently over, he 
 observed a phrase in it which, from its ambiguity, aided 
 him admirably in this. Riario, in expressing himself 
 as having fears for my health {salute), meant the health 
 of my soul. The answer took the opposite interpreta- 
 tion, or that of supposing that the cardinal meant the 
 health of the body. 
 
 God then decreed that my tribulations should at last 
 find a termination, and that a period of rest should 
 
A BRIEF RESPITE. 331 
 
 arise for me — a precursor to that of triumph. Three 
 days after I had despatched the brief to the cardinal, 
 and whilst I was working alone in my wretched habita- 
 tion, a hurried knock was given on the door. A lay 
 sister cried to me — 
 
 "The Cardinal has come, and has sent for you — 
 make haste ! " 
 
 Then rushed into my mind all the vexations, the 
 broken promises, the treacheries, the long oppression, 
 the humiliating scene of the arrest. I felt inclined to 
 send him away with the full measure of my resentment, 
 but thought within myself, "It is too soon yet; one 
 must use some policy with these hypocrites." 
 
 I found him in the saloon ; I had not seen him for 
 four years, he seemed to have aged ten years in that 
 period. The powerful convulsions which had agitated 
 Church and State in Italy had furrowed his brow with 
 hieroglyphics — marks of premature senility. It was 
 no longer the Riario of former times — it seemed but 
 his shadow. 
 
 I advanced without kneeling to him. I sat down 
 without asking the permission to do so. 
 
 " You keep the past in remembrance, and want to 
 show your resentment," he said, with a forced smile. 
 " I own to have acted unadvisedly occasionally, I am 
 but a man (homo sum), and every man is liable to 
 error." 
 
 After so many deceptions it would have been only 
 
332 HENRIETTA CAEACCIOLO. 
 
 idiotcy to have allowed myself to be caught by this 
 bait 
 
 " It is only," I replied after a long silence, " only 
 out of respect for your sacred calling, and because I 
 wish to believe in your acknowledgment of error that I 
 can consent to throw a veil over the past." 
 
 " Are you then irrevocably determined to quit the 
 cloister where the solemn vows you took still recall 
 
 you?" 
 
 " I obey the voice of God, which recalls me back to 
 life." 
 
 " And, moreover, you determine to pass out of my 
 jurisdiction — out of my diocese — I know you do. Do 
 not do so, I entreat you : do not repudiate the house 
 which received you at your birth; the father who 
 reared you and still sustains you. Yes, you are my 
 daughter ; it is true you have been a trifle hardly dealt 
 with, but rest assured that from this day forth I will 
 treat you with all the tenderness and consideration of a 
 loving father." 
 
 These words revealed to me the object of his visit 
 He could not endure that the world should see the 
 affront he received in my being transferred from his 
 jurisdiction. An adversary, humbled and repentant, 
 excites our pity ; but the same, only a mask of hypo- 
 critical mercilessness, rouses our smothered anger. 
 
 " Am I to trust," I cried with warmth, "am I to 
 trust the promises, put faith in the guarantee of persons 
 
A BRIEF RESPITE. 333 
 
 who keep their word as you did to Father Spacca- 
 pletra, on the subject of my arrest ? " 
 
 " When I promised you should not be arrested by 
 sbirri, and reconducted to the cloister, you, my good 
 lady, had not done that which you did afterwards. 
 Who would have ever dreamt that you would have 
 looked for secularisation ? That you would have 
 appeared in public places leaning on the arm of 
 liberals inscribed on the black book ? " 
 
 " I would wager that if you met me to-morrow in 
 the Toledo, you would do the same." 
 
 " Matters now have taken a different turn ; even if 
 I wished, I could not." 
 
 " Say, rather, as the wolf did to the lamb, that 
 I have troubled the water where your forefathers were 
 used to slake their thirst. Ah ! Cardinal, when with 
 the very symbol of our redemption in your hand, you 
 trod an orphaned and helpless girl under foot, did you 
 ever then think of your own last hour — the day of 
 reckoning ? " 
 
 " We will not speak of the past. I may have erred 
 through bad counsel or weakness, but, in truth, you 
 yourself are not free from having done wrong. You, 
 who, under a nun's veil, wished to hide the infamous 
 schemes of demagogues and republicans. But I 
 repeat, let us mutually lay aside our rancours. From 
 henceforth I will treat you with the most unvarying 
 consideration." 
 
334 HEXRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 " Your Eminence, I have known you through long 
 and most cruel experience. For the future, if you 
 desire it, I will even kiss your hand ; but I cannot, 
 in exchange for this, allow you to " 
 
 That archtype of simulation would, I believe, have 
 remained impassible to the most outrageous insult if 
 he could only have entrapped me anew. He proposed 
 to select another cloister for me incomparably more 
 commodious than the present ; to grant me permission 
 to go out every day ; to provide me with another and 
 more liberal allowance. I cut him short, saying, — 
 
 " No, no, good father : you where you are, I here ; 
 every one at his post Let us establish distinctly from 
 this conference, which shall be the last, the part which 
 is suitable to each. The plainer the terms, the better 
 friends. 
 
 " I will come now and then to pay you a visit You 
 will permit me ? " 
 
 " Do not dream of it," 1 said, in a determined tone. 
 " Too long and too oppressive has your guardianship 
 been to me. There are those who wish me to bring 
 you to account for the past. This I will not do. But 
 it is time, in returning peacefully to your see, that you 
 have care for your own health far differently from that 
 which you have had for that of your pupO. Eetum, 
 monsignore, and get rid of that passion for intrigue and 
 intolerance, which, in putting your reputation at 
 hazard, daily undermines your authority.'' 
 
A BRIEF RESPITE, OoiJ 
 
 The Cardinal, observing now that to entrap me and 
 secure me his nets had got too old and too full of rents, 
 took up a corner of my scapulare, and said, — 
 
 " A last word. I hope when in Castellamere, you 
 will reside in a ritiro." 
 
 " I will do that which shall seem fitting to my new 
 bishop." 
 
 " I trust that you will wear a black veil." 
 
 " My mourning is not yet over : I will wear one." 
 
 He then rose, and, as he passed along, the nuns all 
 threw themselves on their knees before him ; one touch- 
 ing the hem of his purple ; another, with the ends of 
 her fingers, touched his hand, and then kissed her own ; 
 and each one strove before the other to receive his 
 benediction. 
 
 When he had reached the last stair, he turned 
 round to bestow a final benediction on the nuns. Ob- 
 serving me in the first row of these : — 
 
 " ' Liefa e festosa de mirarlo guiso.' 
 
 " Recite an 'Ave Maria' for me," he said, giving 
 me a distinctive benediction. 
 
 " Kequiem eternam," I answered. 
 
 Having opened a correspondence with the bishop of 
 Castellamare, I begged him not to desire that I should 
 enter a convent. As to going out, I informed him that 
 a lady, a widow, who had been for eighteen years 
 
336 HEJfRIETTA CAKACCIOLO. 
 
 a retirata in 3Iondragone, had promised to go out 
 each time with me. The Bishop gave his full assent. 
 
 As a last service, the Cardinal prohibited my sisters 
 from accompanying me, and wrote to the bishop to send 
 some one to fetch me. So arbitrary did this exaction 
 appear to the Bishop himself, that he thus answered my 
 sisters who had gone to Castellamare to confer with 
 him — 
 
 " Humour him," said he. " Wait for your sister at 
 Grenili, and, when she is passing, join her." 
 
 On the 4th November, 1854, after three years and 
 four months of cruel imprisonment, I revisited the light 
 of day. 
 
 A nun — one of those who live out of the convent, 
 and are called " Monache de Casa," was sent by the 
 Bishop to accompany me ; my own sisters and the 
 old lady who accompanied me being deemed by Riario 
 unfitted for this office. 
 
 What occurred? This nun, who suffered from 
 a difficulty of breathing, came in an open, instead of 
 a close carriage — terrible contravention of orders. 
 
 At Resina we met his Eminence by chance. Our 
 coachman raised his hat, and, whilst the Cardinal was 
 in the act of raising his hand for benediction, he 
 remained with it thus elevated, in his astonishment at 
 beholding me seated in a prohibited carriage. 
 
SPIES. 337 
 
 CHAPTEE XXIV. 
 
 SPIES. 
 
 Restoeed once more to the world of the living, 
 every object appeared new to me — objects I had 
 never hoped to behold again. I drew in the air in 
 large draughts as if the minutes were counted during 
 which I was to be allowed to enjoy it, and I felt a 
 lively commotion at the aspect of the active, cheerful 
 population which passed me. My painM remini- 
 scences shrunk to an imperceptible point, even that 
 ready to vanish altogether. My path seemed flanked 
 by an immensity whose horizon far exceeded my ex- 
 pectations. 
 
 Counselled by the Bishop to avail myself of the 
 country in my recovered liberty rather than the city, I 
 replied that this was precisely my intention. 
 
 Panting for the free air, the light, space, untram- 
 melled movement, I took my old woman every morn- 
 ing into the country, and, quitting the city, I climbed 
 
 z 
 
338 HENRIETTA CAEACCIOLO. 
 
 upwards through the woody eminences of Castellamare. 
 The inclemencies of the weather did not deter me: 
 neither the rain which might fall in furious torrents 
 along the sides of the mountains, nor the autumnal 
 mist, which, sweeping over the forest and spanning 
 the ravines, would envelope me in its dense vortex. 
 With my eye fixed upon a distant point of the horizon, 
 I waited for the dispersion of the mist to find in the 
 return of sunlight a fairer, a more splendid prospect, 
 no longer circumscribed by enormous walls and bars of 
 iron. 
 
 My hair in the mean time had begun to grow, 
 having fallen for the first time under the scissors of San 
 Gregorio, and having for the space of thirteen years 
 been shorn like a sheep. In proportion as my tresses 
 lengthened I seemed to gain ground in the status of 
 personal independence, and it seemed to me a thousand 
 years till they should arrive at their pristine honours, 
 now that they were no longer subject to the servile state. 
 
 Another badge of bondage remained to me — the 
 monastic dress. I had already laid it aside in the 
 house, but it was necessary to find a means of getting 
 rid of it outside and for ever. That dress not only 
 humiliated me in my own estimation, but annoyed 
 me, embarrassed me at every step. Every one turned 
 round to look at me; some out of curiosity, some 
 through oflended bigotry, some attracted by the 
 novelty — whilst I wished to pass on unobserved. 
 
SPIES. 339 
 
 Resolved to make an end of this anomaly, one fine 
 morning I betook myself to the Bishop. 
 
 " Monsignore," I said to him, " this dress is so great 
 an annoyance to me, that, if you will not grant me 
 liberty to leave it aside, I must expatriate myself to 
 get rid of it." 
 
 " I advise you to keep it on you," replied the 
 Bishop ; then adding, with a smile, " If you will abso- 
 lutely take it off, what need have you of asking my 
 leave?" 
 
 Some days later I laid it aside, and he feigned not 
 to be aware of it. One sole inheritance of the past, the 
 symbol of my celibacy, had I retained — the black veil. 
 
 In the mean time the star of Italy was rising again 
 in the firmament ; small, it is true, but yet of satisfac- 
 tory brilliancy. The Crimean war had given an open- 
 ing to the prowess of Savoy's troops and to the political 
 geniia of Camillo Cavour to raise Piedmont, the 
 champion of the nationality and military strength of 
 Italy, to the grade of a European power. A network 
 of mysterious meshes now united Turin to the prin- 
 cipal cities of the peninsula, and a mass of electric 
 threads kept Italian patriotism in continual communi- 
 cation and activity. This feverish orgasm became 
 more visible in Naples than elsewhere ; in Naples, 
 where the Bourbon dynasty, having violated the sanc- 
 tity of treaties, found itself in a state of rebellion 
 against its subjects, but fallen in credit with the rest of 
 
 z 2 
 
340 HENRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 the civilised world — and consequently virtually dis- 
 possessed since the year 1848. To the eyes of the 
 majority, Naples presented an image of its formidable 
 neighbour on the eve of one of its most tremendous 
 convulsions which the annals of volcanos can record. 
 Every revolutionary party (sad heritage of that con- 
 fusion which the preceding changes had induced !), 
 nut excepting the Bourbon-clerical one, stood in 
 breathless attention to the precursory symptoms of the 
 crisis which was on the point of happening — attentiTe 
 as the Arrotino of the Florentine tribune immersed 
 in his observation of the conspiracy. Why was I 
 tarrying inactively in Castellamare ? Friends, lament- 
 i ng my exile, wrote me letter upon letter. Thinking, 
 then, that if I could find in Naples some little depart- 
 ment suited to my powers, I would run every risk, 
 every danger, pro'sided I could add my most slender 
 aid to the movement which was being organized. 
 
 After eleven months passed in inactivity in that dis- 
 trict, I made a second visit to the Bishop. 
 
 " INlonsignore," I asked him, " if they should drive 
 you from your see, and send you into exile for the rest 
 of ) our life, would you like it ? " 
 
 " No one would like it," he replied, laughing ; for he 
 comprehended the drift of the question. 
 
 " Neither do I : and as I cannot stay separated 
 or ever from my relations, I have resolved to return to 
 Naples." 
 
SPIES. 341 
 
 "And Riario? and the Government? and the 
 Spies?" 
 
 " From my friends God will defend me — from my 
 enemies I will keep myself." 
 
 A few days afterwards I hired a small apartment in 
 the capital in a newly-built house opposite to the 
 "Croce del Vasto," where I took up my residence, 
 together with the widow lady. I took care, however, to 
 retain a room at Castellamare as a place of refuge in 
 case I was molested. 
 
 The remote position of my new lodging, the trans- 
 formation effected by my dress, and the generous 
 tolerance of the Bishop served to keep me a long time 
 concealed from the curiosity of others ; and the minute 
 precautions which I took to protect my incognito would 
 have still further prolonged my safety had not an un- 
 locked for and most unhappy occurrence put Riario 
 on the scent of my return. 
 
 The story above mine was occupied by a priest, 
 whom I had frequently encountered on the stairs, but 
 whose sinister aspect joined to the hateful garb he wore 
 made me always avoid his look and his salute. One 
 night in the month of February, at nine o'clock, I had 
 left the widow's room to go to bed ; a small anteroom 
 divided mine from the door of entrance ; close to this 
 door was a lamp which gave light to the stairs, as the 
 street was a deserted one, and the house without a 
 porter. I heard two persons descend the stairs from 
 
342 HENRIETTA CAEACCIOLO. 
 
 the story above, speaking together as if in altercation. 
 They made a pause underneath the lamp. A fearful 
 shriek and the sound as of a body falling turned my 
 blood cold. This was followed by a faint voice crying 
 " Villain ! you have murdered me." At the same 
 moment a hurried step reasceuded the stairs, and this 
 was almost immediately followed by shrieks and cries 
 in the story above mine. A window was then violently 
 burst open on the side which overlooked the garden, and 
 I distinctly heard the sound of a body precipitated to 
 the ground. The old lady, her niece, and myself were 
 in mute consternation ; all the inmates of the house 
 were in motioa When I heard the voices of those 
 above, whom I knew to be respectable people, I seized 
 a light and was proceeding to the door, and was 
 horror-struck at perceiving a stream of blood issuing 
 from beneath it, and into which I was on th.e point of 
 treading. I recoiled ; but a feeling of humanity gave 
 me courage, and I thought of nothing but help for the 
 wounded man — if even yet he could be helped. 
 Opening the door, a sight of horror met my eyes. A 
 young man lay extended on the gi-ound close to my 
 door — a deep and wide gash had laid open his side ; 
 with upturned eyes and close-set teeth he was in the 
 act of breathing his last. I asked of those who had 
 collected round him who he was — who had assassinated 
 him ; no one could answer either question. In the next 
 moment from above stairs rushed the woman servant of 
 
SPIES. 343 
 
 the priest, after freeing herself "by violent struggles and 
 shrieks from the hold of his sister, exclaiming, — 
 
 " I will stay no longer in this den of brigands. I 
 will stay no longer." 
 
 As she came in sight of the murdered man she began 
 to cry. 
 
 " Who had murdered him?" we asked her. 
 
 " The priest ! the priest ! " 
 
 We were petrified. 
 
 " Where is this wretch then ? " 
 
 " He has thrown himself from the window above." 
 
 The unfortunate young man had married a sister of 
 the priest some months previously. For the difference 
 of thirty ducats in the maternal dower this miscreant 
 had assassinated his brother-in-law. He had sent for 
 him on that evening on the pretence of wishing to 
 speak with him on business, and as they descended the 
 stairs together the murderer dealt the unfortunate 
 young man a deadly blow with a large knife as they 
 stood under the lamp at my door. The villain thought 
 to conceal his authorship of the crime by abstracting 
 his watch, hoping to make it appear that thieves had 
 assassinated his brother-in-law, but the agitation and 
 confusion consequent upon the nefarious act caused him 
 to forget to fling away the bloody weapon ; — he re- 
 entered his door, holding it unconsciously and lightly 
 grasped in his murderous hand. The maid, who had 
 run forward as she heard the cry on the stairs, at that 
 
344 HENKIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 moment encountered him face to face thus armed, 
 and pointing to the bloody witness in his hand, cried, 
 " You have murdered him ! " 
 
 Thunderstruck at seeing himself discovered, he had 
 in the next moment broken open the window and 
 precipitated himself thence. The horror which this 
 assassination inspired had chained all to the spot, and 
 no one had thought of going down to see whether this 
 wretch was alive or dead until the arrival of the police. 
 He was then found extended across a barrow which 
 stood beneath the window, his legs and arms broken 
 and his teeth beaten in, but stOl alive. He died on 
 the following day in the prison of San Francisco. 
 
 The widow of the murdered man, upwards of six 
 months advanced in pregnancy, became insane. 
 
 The old lady who was my companion, terrified by this 
 tragedy, would now no longer live out of the convent, 
 fearing that she should be always subjected to similar 
 frights, leaving me with her niece. Therefore she shut 
 herself up once more in a retire, and I, having changed 
 my residence, buried myself in another not less solitary 
 quarter. But the priest's crime had put the police and 
 the archbishop on my track. 
 
 To whom is not the penetration of the Bourbon 
 police known, especially in matters of Liberalism ? 
 
 " The kingdom of Naples," writes Victor Hugo, 
 " possesses but one institution— the Police. Each dis- 
 trict has its commission for the bastinado. Two sbirri, 
 
spites. 3i5 
 
 Acossa and Manescalco, reign under the king. Acossa 
 bastinadoes Naples ; Manescalco, Sicily. But the stick 
 is only a Turkish remedy, and the Neapolitan Govern- 
 ment has added a cast of the office of the Inquisition to 
 it — the torture— in this wise : an official, Bruno, holds 
 the accused with his head tjed between his legs until 
 he confesses. Another sbirro, Pontello, puts him, 
 seated, on a grating, and lights a fire beneath it. This 
 is the ' sedia ardente.' Another famihar, Luigi Ma- 
 nescalco, relative of the above-mentioned chief, is the 
 inventor of an instrument in which the arm or the leg of 
 the patient is introduced, a screw is turned, and the 
 member is fractured. This is the so-called ' Macchina 
 angelica.' Another suspends a man by the arms from 
 two rings in the wall, and thus by the feet in the oppo- 
 site wall. This done, he jumps on the unhappy wretch, 
 and dislocates some member. There are the ' manetie,' 
 which dislocate the fingers ; and an iron circlet, con- 
 tracted by means of a screw, which is fixed round the 
 head, and serves to force the eyes out of their place. 
 Sometimes it has happened that there is an escape, as in 
 the case of Casemirro Arsimano. But who would be- 
 lieve it ? — his wife, his sons, his daughters, were arrested 
 and placed upon the ' sedia ardente ' in his stead. Cape 
 Zafferano is bounded by desert sands; upon these 
 sands sbirri bring sacks, and in these sacks are human 
 beings. The sack is plunged into the water, and kept 
 there until there are no more struggles ; it is then 
 
346 HENRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 drawn out, and the man within is asked, * "Will you 
 confess ? ' If he refuses, he is plunged in again. In 
 this manner Giovanni Vienna, of Messina, died. At 
 Monreale an old man and his daughter were suspected 
 of patriotism. The old man died under the stick ; his 
 daughter, who was with child, was stripped naked, and 
 made to die under it also. This takes place in the 
 country of Tiberius." 
 
 This police, then, having taken note of the names of 
 all the lodgers in the house where the murder occurred, 
 did not fail to make known to the Cardinal both my 
 return to Naples and my place of abode there. I then 
 knew for a certainty that should I, by ill-luck, be taken, 
 though I might escape the *' sedia ardente," 1 should 
 not avoid the bastinado. From that day the spies 
 began to be put in movement like a swarm of bees — 
 and it is known that this class is composed principally 
 of priests and monks. Priests, with the air of police 
 agents, buzzed unceasingly in the neighbourhood of my 
 lodging, and began to dodge my steps everywhere, 
 mute, never-failing, and inseparable from my shadow. 
 Having learned after a while to recognise them, though 
 disguised, I concerned myself little about them ; but 
 1 was careful not to afford them any pretext to de- 
 nounce me — a pretext they were evidently on the watch 
 for — in my connexion with persons suspected of 
 Liberalism ; for as regarded myself alone, I had no fear 
 of being persecuted. On the one hand, the permission 
 
SPIES. 347 
 
 obtained from Rome to quit a place where I had been 
 violently detained, on the other the change of jurisdic- 
 tion, were two arguments suited to check the tyrannous 
 interference of Riario. Nevertheless, having been ad- 
 vised to place spies again over these clerical and laical 
 ones who besieged me, 1 did so, and with the happiest 
 results. 
 
 By this means I managed not only to put myself 
 in a state of defence, but even to enjoy an unmolested 
 reception of my friends, and visiting certain houses 
 marked with the black cross of the Commissary. 
 
 To cite an example of the method employed by me 
 in eluding the vigilance of the spies, it will be enough 
 to say tliat in six years I changed my residence eighteen 
 times, and my servant-women thirty-two times. 
 
 This system of Bourbon espionage, of such monstrous 
 proportions, garbed itself in a thousand different forms, 
 and took a thousand guises, infecting the atmosphere of 
 the sanctuary itself. Did I enter any church in the 
 neighbourhood, the priests, out of breath, would assail 
 me from the very door with questions, " Do you wish 
 to confess ? " 1 was no sooner fixed in any new abode 
 than the neighbours were on the watch to run over to 
 my maid with some tale or another ; and the questions 
 would then be, — " Is she a widow ? " " Is she married ? " 
 " Why does she live alone ? " " Why ain't she 
 married ? " " Who is her confessor ? " " Has she a 
 over?" " Who are those who visited her this morn- 
 
318 HENRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 ing ? " " Does she correspond with any one ? " " Does 
 she carry her letters to the post herself, or does she 
 intrust them to you ? " 
 
 The spy system would then operate in the following 
 manner : — The maid-servant's communication went 
 to the grocer, or to the apothecary or landlord, and 
 often to the doctor of the neighbourhood ; from these it 
 was transmitted, under the seal of confession, to the 
 rector, thence to the bishop, thence again it passed 
 ipso facto to the commissary, trom him to the cabinet of 
 the king. 
 
 I once happened to have residing opposite to me 
 an old maid, the most troublesome mosquito of the 
 clerical maremma of Naples. Her house was from 
 morning till night a perpetual coming and going of 
 priests and friars of every description. She would 
 lead them on to her balcony, whence she took a 
 singular pleasure in pointing me out to them every 
 time I came to the window. My maid was in her 
 pay, and through this channel she had information 
 of everything which occurred in my house. To free 
 myself from the annoyances of this insect, which gave 
 me neither peace nor truce, I was content to sacrifice 
 three months of my term and seek an asylum in 
 another direction. This change was stiU worse. I 
 learned to my consternation that here my landlord 
 was no less than a police agent himself. I had hardly 
 known this when I wished to quit this habitation at 
 
SPIES. 349 
 
 tlie risk of losing a second term ; but it occurred to me 
 that so precipitate a departure would only have tended 
 to rouse the suspicions of the sbirro himself, and I 
 chose the alternative of remaining. To the right and 
 left of the same story which I occupied, two male 
 sbirri were perpetually stationed ; on the story beneath 
 two sbirri of the other sex, sisters of the mistress 
 of the house, gossiped and watched. Spies were at 
 the keyhole of my door, on the stairs, in the yard, and 
 on the terraces ; in fine, an invasion of them every- 
 where. This hundred-eyed Argus, seeing that 1 never 
 made a practice of confession, carried the information 
 to the rector ; and this man calling my servant into his 
 room subjected her to a long and minute interrogatory, 
 particularly with respect to the names and quality of 
 the persons who frequented my house. I got clear 
 out of this inquisition, as the maid affirmed she knew 
 of none — this being the case, but it behoved me to 
 change my servant again. I received during a long 
 interval b.ut a single scratch from the police. Some 
 months after the death of Ferdinand II., I encountered 
 in the neighbourhood of the museum a gentleman of 
 my acquaintance,, one not less distinguished for his 
 patriotism than his learning. We spoke briefly of the 
 aspect which affairs were taking under the imbecile 
 sovereignty of Francis II., when looking cautiously 
 round he drew from his pocket a letter, which he put 
 into my hand. I concealed it within my dress, not 
 
350 HENRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 however without becoming aware that I had been 
 observed by one of the police, who was dogging my 
 steps, and consequently not without the certainty of 
 being summoned on the morrow to render an account 
 of this. Such was the case. 
 
 At an early hour the visit of one of Acossa's emis- 
 saries was announced ; who, with consummate politeness, 
 demanded of me when and where and through whom 
 I had become acquainted with Signor G. B. ? if he 
 was in the habit of visiting me ? what he had said to 
 me the day previous in the street ? &c. To all this 
 I made, what appeared to him, satisfactory answers. 
 
 " And the paper which he put into your hands ? " 
 he finally asked, " will you have the kindness to 
 favour me with it for a moment ? " 
 
 " Here is the very thing," I replied with promptness 
 and an air of unconcern, and taking up a folded paper 
 which lay for this purpose on my desk, I handed it to 
 him with the same politeness he had used to me. It 
 was a number of the ' Giomale di Napoli ' ! . 
 
 On the morning of the 25th of June, 1860, the 
 street comers in Naples were crowded with people of 
 all classes occupied in reading a manifesto : it was the 
 sovereign act by which the young Heliogabalus — ^hard 
 pressed by the revolt of Sicily, by the victories of 
 Garibaldi, by the threatening attitude of the capital 
 and the continental provinces, by the Invasory views 
 (as they called them) of the House of Savoy, and by 
 
SPIES. 351 
 
 the indifference of foreign cabinets — promised to his 
 subjects, representative, Italfan, and national institu- 
 tions, and a league with the King of Sardinia; 
 accepted the tricolor, and led to the expectation of 
 analogous constitutional institutions for Sicily. 
 
 When they had read this, all shrugged their 
 shoulders with an air of compassion. 
 
 " What does it say ? " I asked my companion, who 
 had made his way amongst the crowd to read the 
 manifesto. 
 
 " It is the will," he answered, " of a tradesman, 
 who is bankrupt for the fifth time." 
 
 It was thus it was denominated by the central com- 
 mittee of Naples, which, in a proclamation on the 
 same day, told the Neapolitans : " Any apparent con- 
 cession whatever, forced by the urgency of the time, 
 and intended to retard the full and entire completion 
 of the national idea, will be received with contempt." 
 
352 HENRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 LIBERTY. 
 
 Whilst in the sole " word of order," " Italia una," 
 the aspirations of twenty ages and the predictions of 
 profound thinkers met from one extremity of the 
 peninsula to the other, whilst the heroic Captain of 
 the Thousand performed acts of prodigious valour, a 
 voice more thundering than the bombardment of a 
 despot, the voice of a poet, whom genius, warm love of 
 liberty and long exile, has admitted to the citizenship 
 of all nations — a prophetic voice, raised the hymn of 
 glory to regenerate Italy. 
 
 " The graves are unclosed — from tomb to tomb 
 the cry is, ' Arise ! ' It is more than life — it is an 
 Apotheosis. O, the heart-throb is divine, when he who 
 was humbled is roused to indication, be that was 
 fallen is risen again; when brilliant and terrible re- 
 appear the eclipsed splendours of many ages, when 
 Stamboul is once again Byzantium, when Setinum is 
 become Athens, when Rome is Rome again ! 
 
LIBERTY. 353 
 
 "Let us all applaud Italy, let us glorify this 
 land of great productions — Alraa parens. Here 
 certain abstract dogmas take real forms, become 
 visible, palpable. This nation is virgin in honour — a 
 mother from her inexhaustible fruitfulness. Ye who 
 listen to me, can ye conceive this magical vision, — 
 Italy free I free from the Gulf of Taranto to the 
 lagunes of San Marco ? For upon thy tomb, O Manin, 
 I swear it, Venice shall share in the festivity. Say, 
 do ye picture to yourselves this vision, which to-morrow 
 shall be reality ? It is finished ! Falsehood, simula- 
 tion, ashes, night, all have vanished! Italy lives! 
 Italy is Italy ! 
 
 " Yes ; that which was but a geographical ex- 
 pression, is a nation ; where there was a corpse, there 
 is now a soul ; where crouched a spectre, stands an 
 archangel, the radiant cherubim of Christian civilisa- 
 tion. Liberty upstanding, with unfurled pinions. Italy, 
 the mighty dead, is come to life again. Look on her 
 in wonder. She arises, and says to Greece, I am thy 
 daughter ; to France, I am thy mother. 
 
 " A sovereign state. She has around her her poets, 
 her orators, her artists, her philosophers, her great 
 citizens, all those councillors of humanity, those con- 
 script fathers of the world's iHtelligence, all those 
 members of the senate of ages ; and on the riglit and 
 on the left, those two names of terrible eminence, 
 Dante and Michael Angelo. What a triumph— what 
 
 2 A 
 
354: HENRIETTA CARACCIOI.O. 
 
 an event — what marvellous phenomenon — the most 
 majestic of accomplished arts — the unity which with 
 one ray illuminates that magnificent Pleiades of sister 
 cities — Milan, Turin, Genoa, Florence, Bologna, Pisa, 
 Siena, Parma, Palermo, Messina, Naples, Verona, 
 Venice, Rome ! 
 
 " Italy arises ! behold, she walks, incesmpatuit dea ; 
 she shines, exulting in her genius ; she communicates 
 the great fever of progress to the world entire; and 
 Europe starts — is electrified by this portentous light. 
 There is not less ecstacy in the eye of the people, less 
 sublime radiance upon their foreheads, less admiration, 
 less joy and transport for this new light upon earth, 
 than for the apparition of a new planet in the firma- 
 ment!" 
 
 Educated in the perfidious school of his ancestors, 
 Francis II., the opprobrium of our age, hoped in the 
 mean time to make a plaything, according to his 
 whim, both of his subjects and of the remainder of 
 Italy and Europe, until he could succeed in bringing 
 back the Austrian bayonets. With eyes shut to the 
 irresistible stream of love which every day more and 
 more impeded his steps ; equally deaf to the counsels 
 of a wise relative as to the subterranean thunders which 
 muttered beneath his very throne, he would only place 
 his dependence upon the litanies of the priests, and on 
 the traditional ignorance of the populace. But the 
 days of Fra Diavolus, of Euffis, of Maria Carolina, 
 
LIBERTY, 355 
 
 of Actons, the days of Germans were now over. Now 
 the corpses of Caracciolo came from the bottom of the 
 sea, afloat upon the surface, and from the gibbet of 
 Pagano to that of Bandiera, along the road of expia- 
 tion, sprinkled with the purest blood of Italy, resound- 
 ing with only one cry — Death to the Bourbons ! — Long 
 live the Prince who will extend his hand to the nation ! 
 
 At last the great decrees of Providence were con- 
 summated: the presentiment of so many ages took 
 form and motion in one of the most signal coups 
 d'etat. The last monarch of the Capets was on the 
 point of disappearing from the scene, like a shadow at 
 the break of day. Whilst the white-cross standard of 
 Savoy — the emblem of independence and unity — in- 
 augurated the reign of national conscience, hoisted 
 upon almost every eminence of the Peninsula. 
 
 I know a composition which expresses with admirable 
 fidelity, and unites with admirable conciseness, the sen- 
 timents of the people of Naples and of Sicily at the 
 moment when the scion of the Ferdinands was em- 
 barkinsr for Gaeta. It is the farewell which a veteran 
 emigrant sends to the Bourbon in epistolatory form, in 
 the name of the Italians of the south. I believe I shall 
 gratify the reader in giving this letter uncurtailed. Its 
 merit will compensate for its length. It is this : — 
 
 " Sire, — Whilst your enemies fling after you a part- 
 ing malediction, and your friends their contempt, permit 
 
 2 A 2 
 
356 HENRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 a patriot to speed you with an adieu which you hare 
 never yet heard — the truth, which posterity will speak, 
 and which courtiers ever conceal. 
 
 "The Battle of Velletri gave your ancestors a 
 throne; the conquest of Reggio took it from them. 
 Between these two events lies a period of 126 years. 
 Let us balance the account you leave There is no 
 history of a people which offers such a spectacle as that 
 of Naples. 126 years of existence have been 126 
 years of almost permanent insurrection. 126 years of 
 reigning, a moral expropriation of the manhood and 
 the intelligence of this people The primary care of 
 your first ancestor was to fence off these provinces in 
 the autonomy of a state — Italians under Spanish do- 
 mination ; and he made us Neapolitans. We were of 
 one family with Milan, with Parma, with Sicily, rescued 
 from evil rule, and raging against such rule. Carlo III. 
 separated us ; and the day on which the great voice of 
 France of '89 called peoples and princes to the examin- 
 ation of their titles, this family, united by the same 
 chain, by the same griefs, the same misery, found itself 
 scattered and isolated as individuals. We were like 
 the ancient states of France, which a common danger 
 and a common law bound into a nation. Tour great 
 grandfather made a capuchined Germany of Italy : an 
 original sin, which no baptism of blood or tears has 
 yet availed to cancel. King Ferdinand consummated 
 the work of isolation. He did more. He embroiled 
 
LIBERTY. 357 
 
 himself stupidly in coalitions against France, and twice 
 occasioned foreign occupation ; threw heyond redemp- 
 tion the kingdom into the desperate fortunes of Austria, 
 and took our men, our money, and our navy — a consi- 
 deration for retaliation. He deprived us of liberty, 
 and denied us every right of man ; and when we did 
 open our eyes to that sun with which France lit the 
 world. King Ferdinand reddened our soil with bloody 
 scaffolds, as a variety to his pastimes. He sold us to 
 the English after having made us bow the knee to 
 Austria. He ran away, and he robbed us, robbed us 
 like a common thief, superadding the insult, ' that he 
 need leave us nothing but our eyes to weep withal.' He 
 stole the deposits from banks; he robbed the 'Monts 
 de Pieta;' he burnt the shipping; gutted the royal 
 residences ; he calumniated us then on his return from 
 an ignominious exile ; put to death all he could ; all 
 that was good ; exterminated all who dared to think 
 or to feel nobly, as many as honoured Italy and whose 
 hearts throbbed for Italy. Darkness began to spread 
 over the kingdom. When the French Republic, the 
 Directory, and the First Consul, threw about with full 
 hands victorious laws, institutes, liberty, administrative 
 organization, and struck at the Caliph of Rome, saying 
 to him ' Thou art a priest, thou canst not be a king,' — 
 then he, the mock king, began the work of demolition 
 of all that was good which France brought us, sparing 
 only the onerous system, of imposts. Tlien when w6 
 
358 . HENRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 constituted our liberties, he perjured himself and con- 
 signed us, bound hand and foot, to Austria, inundated 
 the realm, with German soldiery, and made us the sack 
 and pillage of the German bayonet. Then he placed 
 on our necks the implacable yoke of concordats ; he 
 contaminated us with friars and priests; created a 
 police, which absorbed the whole kingdom, and made 
 of it a nefarious and ensanguined changeling ; he 
 leased us as a property to a handful of infamous and 
 ribald courtiers. 
 
 " Sardanapalus passed away. What remained of 
 him ? what step had he taken to put this people in the 
 path of progress, beyond the cutting off his own pig- 
 tail {queue) ? what^ liberal institution remains to us in 
 heritage of the great commotion of the French Revo- 
 lution, except the preservation of the funds and a 
 standing army ? What benefit did he leave us, except 
 the fathers of the Society of Jesus, and a Canosa as 
 minister? He took all from us, and bequeathed us 
 Francesco, together with the hatred, hardly yet ap- 
 peased, which divides the Neapolitan from the Sicilian. 
 Sire, tell us for what we should be thankfiil, for 
 what we should be mindful and grateful, in the reign of 
 Ferdinand I. Haply for so many acts of contempt 
 of blood, of defamation. Perhaps for the prisons which 
 he left full, or the banishments which saw so many of 
 the greatest of Italy's sons perish. Perhaps for the 
 'white terror' which enveloped the kingdom like a 
 
LIBERTY. 859 
 
 shroud, or tne occupation of the Austrian army. 
 Should we remember the public debt, the State Juntos, 
 the supremacy of Rome, a doubled budget, .the civil 
 administration concentrated in the police, and a police 
 whose name is Canosa. The Jesuit and the gendarme 
 the first functionaries of State, — a triple censure upon 
 the productions of intellect, the axiom ' De Deo pauca, 
 de Rege nihil,' elevated to a State dogma, to a legal 
 precept. Sire, is it for these that we should be grate- 
 ful ? Is it for this that we should respect in you the 
 descendant of King " Nasone " ? * Is it, perhaps, for 
 this that you on your departure invoke the justice of 
 God, the sanction of the people, that you appeal to 
 diplomacy, to treaties, to history, to force, to reasons of 
 State ? Sire, are these the titles which consecrate you 
 King of Naples, or do any of us perhaps forget them ? 
 Yes, we forget the orgies of Caroline, a Semiramis 
 worthy of tlie Court of Assisi, the lover of Emma 
 Leona. We forget the capitulation of Nelson — the ras- 
 calities of Cardinal Ruffo ; we forget the financial 
 operations of Medici ; the jockeyship of the throne at 
 the Congress of Vienna paid with six millions ; the 
 loans of Rothschild, the secret articles of the treaty of 
 Laybach, and^of that of Verona. Sire, shall we be 
 ungrateful for these ? Are these the titles which you 
 invoke ? 
 
 * In allusion to his enormoios nose. 
 
360 HENRIETTA CABACCIOLO. 
 
 " And yet. Sire, the lazzaroni King seems to have 
 been the best of your race. King Francesco was a ter- 
 rible dawn of blood. Bosco reduced to beggary still cries 
 for justice to God ; the memory of De Matteis makes 
 the Calabrias still shiver with horror ; the traflBckings 
 of Viglia and De Simone stOl keep the eyes of the 
 angel of modesty veiled ; the catacombs of the Car- 
 bonari, the State scrutinies, the juntos of Maeri, 'of 
 De Girola, of Janeh, make the hair of those stand on 
 end who had then to see Mazza, Governa and Acossa. 
 For five years five millions of men dared not respire 
 for fear of revealing that they existed. The ' Society ' 
 enveloped the whole kingdom in its black gown, and 
 said, ' I am the State ! ' The gendarme unlocks a 
 gigantic manacle, and said, I hold you. 
 
 " King Francesco, in fine, was nothing else than an 
 extinguisher, his Government an air-pump. Canosa 
 extracted blood, Medici extracted gold. The others 
 vied in stripping us of honour, of mind, of conscience, 
 of moral life. Rufib prostituted Naples at the feet of 
 Austria, Tommali made justice venal, Nunziante and 
 Pastore made the army so. Rehgion became an instru- 
 ment of spiritual torture, and took the first place in the 
 kingdom ; the kingdom W£is the police. 
 
 " This posthumous Claudius, who lived on phantoms, 
 remorse, perjuries, rancours, eternally athirst for blood 
 and vengeance, since the insurrection of '20, impla- 
 
LIBERTY. 361 
 
 cable as Sylla, a cold-blooded sanctimonious execu- 
 tioner, after five years, died. Whither did he go ? 
 
 " He had inherited an almost endless popu!a,non ; ■ 
 he left but a corpse. He had found the Austrians — a 
 temporary sore ; he left us the Swiss, the ignominy of 
 their own land, the enduring misery of ours. He had 
 found the Muratists and Constitutionalists of '20 ; he 
 left us the Canosini and the Liguoretti, the University 
 gorged with priests, the treasury emptied by the jour- 
 ney into Spain ; for military glory, the capitulation of 
 Tripoli ; for a decoration, the ' order of merit,' the re- 
 compense of spies and gaolers; the navy destroyed; 
 Prince Metternich sovereign in reality. The public 
 debt, which Ferdinand had found in 1815 at 94,000 
 ducats per annum, and which the parliament of 1820 
 had increased to 1,440,000 ducats, besides four millions 
 and a half of floating debt, Francesco left at 3,190,850 
 ducats. The budget, which he found at twenty-three 
 millions, he left at nearly twenty-seven millions— one- 
 million three hundred thousand ducats in pensions and 
 remunerations for base and infamous services. 
 
 ' " We are willing to strain a point. Sire, not to ap- 
 pear pessimists — to find something which does honour 
 to your house ; and we find nothing but the unbridled 
 licentiousness of Queen Isabella. "We would willingly 
 cite some trait by which it was endeared to the Nea- 
 politans, revered By Italy ; and we only find the execu- 
 tions of Cilento, the snare laid for the Capozzoli, the 
 
362 HENRIETTA CAKACCIOLO. 
 
 journey to Rome to kiss the foot of Pius VII., and that 
 to Milan to bow the knee before Mettemich. Ah, 
 Sire ! do we forget any benefits beyond the change of 
 Canosa into Tonti ? Do we pass over any act of your 
 race besides the three millions which we paid for the 
 inconsistent mosque of San Francesco de Paola ? What 
 remained to our fathers of the kingdom of Francesco 
 beyond an endless curse, a cry of terror and of 
 horror ? 
 
 " If to consolidate your right you have, Sire, other 
 titles than that of ' dei gratia,' produce them. For the 
 reason that the inheritance of your two first ancestors 
 has not served to preserve the throne for you, whilst 
 you are out of our power in the same way, it will not 
 save your head if, when arrayed against us, you fall 
 into our hands. 
 
 " And your father — ^has he, perchance, been a better 
 specimen of the dynasty, better represented the nation, 
 given a single step to our advancement ? Has he ren- 
 dered his subjects more esteemed in Europe, more 
 prosperous and free within, more caressed in Italy? 
 Ah, Sire ! for one hundred and twenty-six years Naples 
 has repeated the history of the old woman of Diony- 
 sius. Francesco made King Policenelli seem all that 
 was just, liberal, and humane. King Bomba made us 
 call again for King Cappio, and your majesty pays for 
 them all 
 
 " Ferdinand II. ! and what can I tell your majesty 
 
LIBERTY. 363 
 
 that Europe does not know ? What man ever stood so 
 deeply in the contempt and execration of mankind ? 
 He has rendered diplomacy itself cynical, which has 
 held him cheap, and, as a malefactor, severely con- 
 demned him. Foreign parliaments covered him with 
 msults from the very Chair; the public papers ex- 
 hausted themselves in ignominious words. He was the 
 Napoleon of Shame ; and the people within in perma- 
 nent insurrection. In 1830 it was Palermo; in '32 
 the conspiracy of Frate Angelo Peluto ; '34 the con- 
 spiracy of Rossarole ; '35 that of San Carlo, in which 
 Orazio Mazza made the first essay in the character of 
 denouncer ; '37 was the submission of Sicily ; in '38 
 that of Cosenza and of Aquila ; in '41 Aquila anew ; 
 in '44 Cosenza afresh ; in the same year the expedi- 
 tion of Bandiera in Calabria ; in '46 Gerace, Reggio, 
 Celento ; in '48 the whole kingdom. No prince ever 
 held for so long a period and so implacably the axe 
 over the head of his people. After the proclamation 
 of the statute he perjured himself; then the coup d'dtat 
 of the 15th May ; then an implacable struggle between 
 people and king ; and, above all this, the Medusa head 
 of Austria ; more terrific still than the king, more exe- 
 crated than even the band Peccheneda, Mazza, Go- 
 verna, and Acossa. 
 
 " Your ancestors. Sire, what were they but the 
 Columbo of the sbirro type ? Genius was required to 
 create Canosa, Intonti, Delcaretto, Campagna. He- 
 
364 HENRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 former of the Finances, Ferdinand finished by leaving 
 a public debt of about 12,000,000 and a budget of 
 39,000,000, without making, like Victor Emanuel, 
 railroads for the people and war for Italy. Reformer 
 of the administration, Ferdinand produced Longobardo, 
 Carafa, Acossa, De Liguori, and D'Urso. Ferdinand, 
 Troy a, and Murena, placed sbirri and spies in the 
 episcopal sees, in the stewardships, in the tribunals, at 
 the receipt of customs, in diplomatic posts everywhere 
 — everywhere a spot of mire, a stain of blood, a per- 
 jurer, an idiot. As organiser of soldiery, Ferdinand 
 drained the populace to the dregs that he might attain 
 the hyperbolic flight of Velletri, and his army that of 
 the discomfiture of Sicily, not of the Sicilians, and the 
 dispersion of the Calabrian corps. An organiser of 
 religion, Ferdinand invented a species of concordat of 
 police, and had all the priesthood under arms ; some to 
 overturn the throne, some to consummate traitorous 
 vespers against the nation. Christ in no place. Anto- 
 nelli somewhere, and most generally hatred to Victor 
 Emmanuel. To reign, and that not for a single day 
 in peace, — nay, shut into his Escurial at Gaeta, hated 
 and hating, — Ferdinand had to commit 897 political 
 assassinations ; shut up in prisons, 15,621 citizens ; 
 condemn to imprisonment 73,000 ; and keep under 
 surveillance more than 200,000 between Naples and 
 Sicily. In comparison with this man, the Duke of 
 Alva was an angel of peace. 
 
LIBERTY. 365 
 
 " Ferdinand had bombs for no other use than to 
 exterminate his subjects, no courteous words but for 
 the enemies of Italy. Insolent in prosperity, and at 
 the moment, and to the person with whom he could be 
 so with impunity, pusillanimous at the instant when 
 the danger had him by the throat. The United States 
 demanded indemnities which were not due, and he 
 paid them. England imposed leonine conditions in 
 the matter of sulphur, and he signed them. Piedmont 
 demanded the restitution of the Cagliari, and he made 
 it. Talarico (even Talarico !) wished to come to terms 
 of surrender, and he sent his minister to make terras 
 with the brigand. No mortal ever kissed more foul 
 hands of priests and friars than he. A king, he autho- 
 lised his functionaries to rob, and shared with them the 
 rapine ; then he played the usurer like the Duke of 
 Modena, and joined himself to the plunderers to starve 
 the realm. There is not in fine a single act in the life 
 of your father which is not a reproach or a crime. He 
 is a king of the negation of God. 
 
 " And after twenty-nine years of reign what remains 
 of him ? A surname — Bomba ; and over and abote your 
 expulsion. Sire, the end of the Bourbon dynasty. In 
 this land, a kiss of the Divinity, he made a Golgotha of 
 the people. This people now rises erect, and like the 
 angel of Milton cries ' Begone, ye race of Cain ! be ye 
 cursed, and cursed, and cursed ! ' 
 
 " You in the mean while proclaim yourself innocent j 
 
366 HENTIIETTA CARACCTOLO. 
 
 you, in departing, implore compassion for your youth, 
 for your understanding. Excuse us ; if God cut 
 you out i^ for a log why persist in wishing to remain 
 a king. In truth, you are equally guilty with all 
 your abettors: nay, still more so than all of them. 
 They sinned principally against their people; you 
 sinned against Italy. If Austria still remains at 
 Venice, the fault is yours. If the Pope still holds 
 
 Rome, the fault is yours ! 
 
 " Yes ; you committed tlie greatest of all felonies 
 against Italy and the Italians, when, upon the Lombard 
 plains, French and Italian soldiers struggled against 
 the eternal enemy of Italy, your soldiers were not there. 
 If Italy had had the hundred thousand of her sons, 
 which were in your command. Napoleon III. would not 
 have consummated the great fault of Yillafranca. You 
 proclaim yourself innocent Pardon us : you may be 
 incapable. Innocent ? — No ! You are the Judas of 
 Italy, and there is no compassion for you. And now 
 what is your conduct at this moment ? I will not sad- 
 den your last hour — ^the more so as your last attempt 
 against the Neapolitan people and against Italy has 
 failed. You would resist in Sicily, in the Calabrias, 
 in the principalities, in the capital itself. Your sword 
 broke in your hand. Now you would imitate the Duke 
 of Modena in carrying off treasure, jewels, pictures, 
 furniture, and wanting to carry off troops and ships. 
 ' Now you wish to try the hazard of a last resistance 
 
LIBERTY. 367 
 
 between the Volturno and the Garigliano. That which 
 you stole, like king Ferdinand I., — what you heaped 
 together of the drops of our blood, and which you turned 
 into gold — keep it! And may God not call you to 
 account for the poor man's mouthful of bread ! But to 
 deliver over to Austria our lives and our ships, to pro- 
 voke new fratricidal struggles behind the fortresses of 
 Capua and Gaeta — ^this is too much ! Take heed, 
 however ; destiny plays sorry tricks, and the patience of 
 the people can be exhausted. Did Louis XVI. ever 
 believe that he would have been arrested half-way, and 
 brought back on the road to the guillotine ? James II., 
 Charles X., Louis Philippe, — did they dream of passing 
 their lives in exile ? Gaeta is not impregnable, and if 
 we take you there — 
 
 " Sire, to know how to fall is the most diflBcult act of 
 all greatness. You could not end like Julian, like 
 Manfredi, like Kosciusco ; it would be imbecility for 
 you to pretend to the end of Sylla, of Charles V., of 
 Christina of Sweden, or the act at Fontainebleau. 
 Brought up as a Capucin, you cannot end your career 
 as a man. Do, then, as the dying Ca?sar did — cover 
 your head, and quit Italy. You are still young. To 
 restore yourself to royal dignity is impossible. You 
 may, however, make yourself esteemed as a man and 
 an Italian, if, when we are arrayed to 6ght beneath 
 Verona the supreme struggle, you will imitate your 
 
308 HENRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 young relative the Due de Chartres — taking the volun- 
 teer's musket, and mixing in the Italian ranks. 
 
 "Such an act of self-denial would make you the 
 greatest of your race, from the ' fowl in the pot ' king * 
 to your father of unpropitious memory. Surrounded 
 by base courtiers who still beg a smile from you, and 
 the last favour you can bestow at this moment, you 
 cannot appreciate this counsel frwm an enemy. When 
 you have slept the troubled sleep of exile, and on the 
 free soil of England you have purified yourself from 
 the miasma of domination, perhaps then you wiU es- 
 teem it less strange, and you will call it to mind. 
 
 " Sire, you depart without anger and without ran- 
 cour, because neither one nor the other do you leave in 
 us. We forgive you. The people have no remem- 
 brances, and for this can rarely show themselves mag- 
 nanimous. Your youth, though darkened by atrocious 
 acts, finds compassion with us yet, as the dawn of 
 Bouthem seas which a sudden mist veils and shuts out. 
 This people possesses a poet's heart, and not yet a 
 politic mind. To brave maledictions and reprisals, in 
 order to obtain a success as your father did, might still 
 be justified ; to be carried away, as you are, by the 
 theatrical manoeuvres of the opera comique style belongs 
 neither to the dignity of princes, nor Christian acts, 
 nor the conduct of a citizen. You will not have every- 
 
 • 
 
 • Heuri IV. 
 
LIBERTY. 369 
 
 where battalions ready to die at your door for 
 you. 
 
 " Farewell ! Sire. Be resigned to the justice of men, 
 if you will that God should be just to you. Bear with 
 greatness of soul the punishment of your forefathers' 
 crimes. Try to be able to say at any hour of your life 
 — I caused as much blood to be shed and no more than 
 was required to save honour ; act so as to remain a 
 man of honour, since you have ceased to be a king. 
 Be of our times — up to the level of the age of civiliza- 
 tion and of knowledge ; bow the head reverently before 
 the new right which was always the eternal right — that 
 of the people and the nation. Renounce fruitless and 
 criminal reprisals ; surround yourself with men better 
 than yourself, not with lackeys who instil the gall of 
 hate into your heart, and the smoke of senseless am- 
 bition. 
 
 " Adieu ! Sire. May Heaven grant that this farewell 
 without bitterness, which we take of you in the name of 
 all the kingdom, may not be changed into the farewell 
 of Medea!" 
 
 Joyous and refulgent as on the summit of Thabor 
 arose that same sun which at eve had denied its rays to 
 the deathbed of the Bourbon dynasty. 
 
 The 7th September is one of those remarkable dates 
 which, in citing, hardly requires the year to be added 
 thereto. Few slept on that night. Spontaneous and 
 
 2 B 
 
370 nENKIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 universal were the preparations for the solemn entry of 
 the liberator. The first gleams of dawn found all 
 Naples astir. 
 
 The principal streets were crowded with tens 
 of thousands; the greater part armed from appre- 
 hension of some reactionary movement ; the windows, 
 the terraces, even the roofs, were overflowing with 
 spectators. The Toledo was impassable ; not a single 
 house which was not prodigally decorated with national 
 emblems or hung with tapestries ; and amidst that 
 frenzied excitement a never-ceasing sound of martial 
 and patriotic songs ; a concert of voices become hoarse 
 from continued acclamations of " Italy ! Naples and 
 Garibaldi!" 
 
 I was smitten with the natural ambition to be among 
 the first of my fellow-citizens to press the hand of the 
 General. This fancy nearly cost me my life. Having 
 consulted the programme, I desired to take up my 
 position at the great gate of the " Foresteria," where 
 the hero was to alight. Thanks to the aid of some 
 friends, I was enabled to place myself; but at that 
 moment, the multitude swelling immeasurably, pressed 
 me so violently that I was nearly crushed to death. 
 
 My vanity was satisfied later in the Cathedral- 
 square, in the midst of deafening acclamations imder 
 the shade of a hundred tricolour standards which floated 
 over head, and under a cloud of flowers which fell in 
 torrents from the windows. The flow of emotion had 
 
LIBERTY. 371 
 
 paled the natural freshness of his cheek and discom- 
 posed the features of the conqueror. The paleness of 
 his brow breathed something of sadness, which was in 
 strong contrast with the delirious intoxication of his 
 admirers. His eye alone presented the inward flash 
 in all its intensity ; that eye, undisturbed by the emo- 
 tions of sense, seemed at that moment fixed upon the 
 bastions of Mantua. 
 
 The warriors of heroic Greece ascended as demigods 
 to the sky; those of more modern days have had 
 statues; but no hero, ancient or modern, received 
 during hfe so many cordial embraces from the people 
 as did Garibaldi in that single day. 
 
 What shall I say of my own sensations ? 
 
 That with eyes moistened with tears of joy I raised 
 my countenance and thoughts to God, and from the 
 bottom of my heart I thanked Him for three things : — 
 For having twice rescued me from despair ; for having 
 delivered me from the despotism of the priesthood ; 
 for having made me spectatress of one of the grandest 
 and most moving spectacles of the Christian regenera- 
 tion. But what signify my sensations further? My 
 drama has reached its last act. My story finishes on 
 this day, which, for Italy, is a day of regeneration. 
 That /, which, clothed in its garb of woe has haply 
 drawn down your pity, reader ! because all around it 
 was mourning and silence, now disappears as a dim 
 
 2 B 2 
 
372 HENRIETTA CARACCIOLO. 
 
 and saddened star by the brilliancy of the rising 
 sun. 
 
 And my veil ? 
 
 Whilst the priests of San Gennaro, to avoid the 
 solemnity of a Te Deum, and to escape the customary 
 prayer — " Lord save thy people and thine inheritance," 
 detained Garibaldi vrith the idle inspection of their 
 treasures, I, taking the black veil from my head and 
 placing it upon the altar, performed an act of restitu- 
 tion to that Church which, twenty years before, had 
 given it to me — " Votum feci, gratiam accepi." From 
 that moment I considered as broken the last hnk 
 which bound me to the monastic state ; and the title of 
 citizeness, which, because given to all contains no spe- 
 cial distinction, became for me the most appropriate ; 
 a fairer one than even the ancient Civis Romanus. 
 Any one, therefore, who from that time would have 
 ^ styled me from habit sister or canoness, I would correct 
 them, saying, " Call me citizeness ; and, if you wish 
 to add a distinction, say that citizeness who proposed 
 and promoted the woman's plebiscite in Naples." 
 
 If, however, I am no friend to the black gown, I 
 preserve no resentment to it. Any rancour I have laid 
 on the altar together with my veil. 
 
 I acknowledge myself indebted to my long seclusion 
 for many a practical lesson. If destiny had not for 
 the long space of twenty years riveted the galley- 
 
LIBERTY. 373 
 
 .-lave's chain to my foot ; had I been married in girl- 
 hood ; should I have learned in the world's school to 
 watch the evil passions at their birth — passions which 
 germinate in close atmospheres, and feed upon anger, 
 rancours, jealousies, and suspicions. ' 
 
 At this period it was my fate to have made the 
 acquaintance of a man of middle life, whose elevated 
 sentiments, in harmony with the firmness of his cha- 
 racter, won my esteem, and caused me from the first to 
 hold him far superior to what individuals of princely 
 lineage are generally. 
 
 He bore engraved on his heart the sacred image of 
 redeemed Italy ; on his head a deep scar — record of a 
 wound received on the 15th May, from the sabre of 
 a Swiss. 
 
 Conformity of opinions and the vicissitudes of our 
 lives strengthened our friendship. Shortly after we 
 sought to consecrate this mutual sympathy with the 
 seal of religion, and we applied to the Church for the 
 benediction of marriage. 
 
 The Church formally refused its assent. 
 
 Every form of application, memorial, — all, was vain 
 before that pyramidal and inexorable " Non possumus.'' 
 We sought the blessing of another Church upon our 
 union. 
 
 I am at last happy. 
 
374 HENRIETTA CAEACCIOLO. 
 
 By the side of a husband who adores me, and to 
 whom I respond with equal love, I am where the 
 Almighty had placed the woman at the close of Crea- 
 tion's first week. 
 
 Why may not I, in fulfilling the duties of a good 
 wife, a good mother, a good citizen — why may not 
 even I aspire to the treasures of the Divine mercy ? 
 
 THE END. 
 
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