Memoirs of Henrietta Caracciolo, of the Princes of Forino, ex-Benedictine nun : from the original Italian : under the sanction of the princess

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Emory University Library

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Chapter I. Eakly Tears

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 Oaracciolo, 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 fourteenth year.

Theresa Cutelli (such was the maiden's name), after having borne him four other daughters, gave birth to myself on the 17th February, 1821, and I was christened Henrietta after a sister of my father — a Benedictine nun — one of the innumerable sacrifices which my race had consecrated to this Order.

I was born in 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 with 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 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 intelligence 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 commenced a search of indescribable confusion and bewilderment, 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, immersed 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 precipitation 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 hurled 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 Ban, a telegraphic despatch summoned my father suddenly back to Naples. 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 when 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 required. 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 dejection.

EARLY YEARS. 7

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 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, fur 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 Keggio, 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 persistence of the Euglishman in putting to sea in such a tempest seemed inexplicable to my father; and, having expressed to him his astonishment 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'sday, " For there, and on that particular day," added he, " I have engaged to marry a 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 certain 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 sufferings of the three past years, even to the sinister howling of the tempest; so easily are the early woes of childhood effaced. I did not foresee then the storm and the woes which awaited me.

O HENRIETTA CARACCIOLO.

Chapter II. Fiest Loves

Eight years of uninterrupted uniformity now succeeded; the amusements of childhood, the requirements of our education, occupied the clay, 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 proportions of a strongly-constituted organization. When, however, I entered my fourteenth year, my figure expanded ; to the sallowness of my cheeks succeeded a healthy colour, which seemed all the more deepened from the natural dark tone of my complexion. Unfortunately (if we may'apply such a term to love}, with the development of the body came the precocious advancement 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 eminently 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 discipline are the aspirations of the heart at fourteen ? —

The last of my joyous, my careless days, expired on 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

FIRST LOVES. 9

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. Eaising his hand slowly to his hat, he saluted me. What rashness was mine ! I answered it all confusion, " 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 weariness — my lessons became intolerable. I lived only for 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 our 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 he near me — to see me oftener. He withdrew within, and by a gesture asked if I loved him. I nodded an affirmative.

On that evening a number of our friends had assembled in the drawing-room, and in the conversation of some young men close to me I heard his name pronounced. I listened — I was, however, only able to seize the words " that he had ceased to reside with his family to bo 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.

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 the}' 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 conjure up ! Is there in the heart <>f the enamoured girl a clay more ardently sighed for than that of \wr

10 HENBIETTA CARACCIOLO.

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, Signorina! what are you doing? Come away from the window! that gentleman is going to be married 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, Signor Carlo is to marry another lady within a month. My mother asked Signor Carlo himself if the lady was to be the Signorina 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 livelong 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 fortnight.

My mind 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 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, accompanied by her relations."

1 started as with an electric shock.

FIRST LOVES. 11

" 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 commotion 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 Oalabrian youth, by temperament lovers of gaiety, were full of the occupation which their masks and costumes gave tbem 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 p"ovince. He came accompanied 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 themselves, and seemed to deprive me of all volition.

On the day following I again saw him — in the evening likewise. I could hardly move a step afterwards that I did not encounter bim and observe his anxiety to follow me and evince his admiration for me.

" Dost thou then think that all men are of the same com-

position 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 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,

12 HENRIETTA CARAOCIOLO.

OHAPTEE III.

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 Kossini 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 prevalence of " melomania " in the Neapolitans.

It was also a saying that any crowned head a disciple 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 first for his nobility, the second for the 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 (inseparable 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 abundance 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 imitation 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 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.

JEALOUSY. 1 3

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 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 convincing, 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 person 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 disposition, and the continual pain which this caused me.

This trait in the character of Domenico was a perpetual 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 expression of his countenance transformed fearfully ; his eyes 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 difficult for him to convey a letter to nie ; and the vigilance of my mother made it absolutely im* possible for me to make an answer to it.

Thus, having intimated to me through a friend that if 1 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 position 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, supposing them always to be just.

During this state of things a circumstance 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 Keggio, and separated from it by that strait which in the hour of storm makes the boldest seaman quail, 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 barbarous, is the great attraction of all the neighbouring populations, as well as those of the Calabrias.

Amongst many other objects of a grotesque or ridiculous 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 description 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 procession : —

A colossal car is dragged by a long team of buffaloes 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 ; sumptuously decorated, and

JEALOUSY. 1 5

put in movement in honour of her who gave birth to the God of Charity. But its functions recall to mind the fumed car of Juggernauth, 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 impossible 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, one disputes with the other the identity of her infant, amid a storm 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.