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sionary labor treated of in the first part of our article, has awakened our sympathy, and we feel in taking leave of him that it is not quite enough to thank him for what he has done, without expressing a wish that he would do more. And if we have, in speaking of his book, made the proportions of blame too great for the praise, it

may be excused on the ground, to use a
form of speech which it is to be hoped
neither he nor we will ever require again,
that there has no work lately issued from
the press which has deserved a little cen-
sure more, or could bear a great deal so
well.
G. W. P.

EZZELINO DA ROMANO, SURNAMED "THE CRUEL."

A CHARACTER OF THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY.

Ir is well known that the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet owes its origin to incidents which took place in the city of Verona, when

"Civil broils, bred of an airy word By Capulet and Montague, disturbed The quiet of the town."

These rival factions were a subdivision of the two grand parties known as the Guelphs and Ghibellines. Verona thus divided was the first stage where Ezzelino da Romano, one of the most notorious characters of his age, appeared before the world. By historians he is represented as a man of no ordinary energies, but who by turning them to evil became the scourge of his cotemporaries, and the execration of posterity. Tradition describes him as the most cruel of tyrants, and the poets of Italy have treated him still worse. Ariosto sums up his character by calling him a son of the Devil, who did so much mischief that Marius, Sylla, Nero, and Caligula may be considered as merciful when compared to him.

our hero, describes in a certain part of the infernal regions a lake of boiling blood, from which the heads of such monsters of cruelty as Dyonisius of Sicily and Alexander Pherous are seen to emerge, only however to be pierced by the arrows of Centaurs ranging on the banks. While he is looking at them the sage Chilon his guide, pointing to one of them, says: "Seest thou those horrid features, overshadowed by dark locks?" "Tis Ezzelino.

"E quella fronte che ha il pel cosi' Nero E' Azzolino."

INFERNO, Canto XII.

It cannot but prove interesting to have a brief sketch of a person handled so unmercifully by such celebrated authorities, more especially as his chronicle furnishes an idea of matters and things during the thirteenth century, in the leading events of which he bore a prominent part.

Ezzelino da Romano, so called from the name of the village where he was born, began to rise into importance about the year 1225, when, uniting himself with Salinguerra, a famous desperado chief of those days, he appeared in Verona to reinforce the Montecchi, who had just driven out of the city Count Richard di San Bonifazio, head of the Cappelletti or Guelphs. The good services rendered by Ezzelino to this faction, gained him, in Verona, a little Dante, though a fellow-Ghibelline of power, which he increased by his subtlety

"Ezzelino immanissimo tiranno
Che fia creduto figlio del Dimonio
Farà troncando i sudditi tal danno
E distruggendo il bel paese Ausonio
Che pietosi appo lui stati saranno
Mario, Silla, Neron, Cajo, ed Antonio."
ORLANDO FURIOSO.

and boldness. He had frequent opportu- | nities of signalizing himself on account of the unceasing broils between the cities of Lombardy and the Marca Trevigiana, torn by numerous factions, each division of which was headed by some warlike noble, or ambitious adventurer, desirous to increase the fame of his house, and enlarge the number of his adherents. His first care was to expel from Verona the nobles who adhered to Count Richard, reducing their palaces and towers to ashes.

We find him soon after on horseback, at the head of his Veronese, crossing the country in the direction of Vicenza. Through the assistance of his brother, Alberico da Romano, who had some little power there, he entered the place, and the Veronese war-cry terrified the unwary Vicentines, who flew to arms and fought desperately in the streets and thoroughfares. Although the forces of Padua soon came to their assistance, Ezzelino defeated them with great slaughter; and having created Alberico Governor of Vicenza, he returned to Verona proud of having detached a city from the Guelph party.

The Paduans, however, had not to wait long for an opportunity of retaliating upon Ezzelino. He had got into his possession the castle of Fonte, allied to the Paduans, but they fell upon him with such determination that he was compelled, much to his confusion, to retreat before their superior forces.

They got word soon after, that he had caused the city of Treviso, which had named him its citizen, to take arms and proceed against the Bishops of Feltre and Belluno, and that, putting himself at the head of the Trevisans, he had taken those two little towns. The Paduans exhorted the citizens of Treviso to get rid of Ezzelino, and not having succeeded, they formed a league against him with the Patriarch of Aquileja and the Marquis of Este, and marched towards Treviso, setting fire to everything they found on the way. Felre and Belluno were finally given up to the aggressors, and Ezzelino was obliged to go and create mischief in some other quarter. He owed thenceforth a grudge to the Marquis Azzo D'Este, which time did not make him forget, as we shall see. The old dissensions of Verona had not subsided yet, and they were stirred up

anew by the election to the office of Governor of Giustiniani, a patrician of Venice, who not only recalled the exiled nobles, but received into the city Count Richard of San Bonifazio, head of the Capulet faction. The jealousy of the Montecchi at this occurrence can be easily imagined. Ezzelino and his old associate, Salinguerra, blew the coals; and at their instigation, and with their assistance, Giustiniani was driven from the town, and the Count, with several of his adherents, was thrown into prison. The principal part of the Count's faction took refuge in the castle of San Bonifazio, where they elected a Governor, and implored the help of the commune of Padua. Every device they could think of was tried by the Paduans to coax or terrify Ezzelino and Salinguerra into the liberation of Count Richard, but in vain. They and the Marquis of Este, with other friends of the imprisoned nobleman, even begged that holy and learned preacher, Friar Anthony of Lisbon, better known afterwards under the title of St. Anthony of Padua, to induce the Veronese to set the Count free. Willing to do anything that might lead to restore peace among brothers, the good saint proceeded to Verona, and tried both reason and entreaty with the chief men of the city, showing them the direful consequences which would ensue from their refusing to release a prisoner obtained by means which they knew themselves to be fraudulent and unjust. His exhortations were cast to the wind on account of the state of exasperation in which all minds were at the time, so that after doing all that lay in his power, he left them, and returned again to Padua.

The effect of this unchristian obstinacy was, that not only the forces of Padua and the Marquis of Este poured into the territory of Verona, but even Modena and Mantua were drawn into their side of the quarrel. Several towns and castles were reduced to ashes, and the tide of war rolled on to the very gates of Verona. Blind attachment to a favorite leader, and factious enmity, may account for many outrages to one who understands the state of Italy in the middle ages, when every man was a warrior, every warrior's country was the town of his birth or adoption, and every town's code of honor the principles of its petty prince or baron. But even these

meagre excuses cannot palliate the conduct | elements which, mingling together, formed of Ezzelino. He respected no laws, and every man, and predominated over him cared for no standard, but served in the by turns. capacity of leader, man-at-arms, or cutthroat, the master whose influence he could use to the best advantage for the accomplishment of his private ends.

In the year 1232, Frederic II., Emperor of Germany, was in Ravenna. Having done his utmost on several occasions to sow dissension among the Italian commonwealths, and show his ingratitude towards the Pope, by whom he had been crowned, changing his tact with every change of fortune, but still getting worse as he grew older, this monarch deemed it his interest in the present year to maim and disable, as far as possible, the cities of Lombardy, which had formed a confederacy against him.

Ezzelino was among the foremost to aid, by his counsel and his arm, this plot designed for the ruin of his native country; and the foreign tyrant was so much pleased with his advances, that he subsequently rewarded his zeal with the hand of an illegitimate daughter. One of the first acts of the infamous Ezzelino was to imprison Guido da Rho Podesta, or Governor of Verona, with the judges, and give the city into the hands of the Count of Tyrol and other officers, who, accompanied by a hundred and fifty horsemen, besides a hundred cross-bow men, took possession of Verona in the Emperor's name. The reward of the traitor was the captaincy of a foreign force, at the head of which he resisted those of the confederates who opposed him, sacking and burning their towns and strongholds, besides giving them a warm reception whenever they showed their faces in the territory of Verona.

Division became so rife in Lombardy, and the two parties of the Imperials and Confederates so violent against each other, that Pope Gregory IX., who had changed his residence from Avignon again to Rome, and succeeded in quelling dissension there, resolved to try to open the eyes of the Lombards upon the danger to which the whole country was exposed by their interminable feuds. The manner in which the Pope set about completing his wise and pious purpose, is characteristic of those times when respect for religion, feudal fanaticism, and warlike passions were the

The Pope elevated to the honor of Envoy Apostolic, and endowed with ample faculties, Fra Giovanni da Vicenza, of the order of St. Dominic, a man of acknowledged sanctity and persuasive eloquence, charging him to represent to the jealous cities of Lombardy, with words of heavenly unction, the grievous sins and the injury to their native land ensuing from their detestable brawls, and to exhort them to sincere repentance, and to the maintenance of the brotherly love nearly forgotten amongst them. Friar John was soon upon the field of battle. So great was the fame of his virtue and eloquence, that the inhabitants of Padua turned out in their best clothes to receive him; and having met him on the road between their city and Monselice, taking him up with great devotion, they put him on their carroccio or war-chariot, and drew him fairly into the town with loud demonstrations of joy. The good friar spoke to them, and afterwards to their troublesome neighbors, with such effect that even the Montagues of Verona promised to behave themselves better in future; and the wicked Ezzelino himself swore to do all the holy father had ordered for their greater good. Several of the cities, at the suggestion of Friar John, gave liberty to those of different factions who were confined in their prisons, and made away with such parts of their statutes as had been the cause of civil contention. Encouraged by the beneficial effects of his mission, and desirous to give stability to the peace which had been obtained, Friar John, in accordance with the principal chieftains and councils of the towns, appointed a day upon which all the communes should meet, for the general good and tranquillity. He chose for the rendezvous an extensive plain near the river Adige, four miles from Verona.

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This carroccio was a large chariot on four wheels, surmounted by a mast, on the top of which was a golden apple, or some other device, and was destined to bear the standard of each little commonwealth. The chariots were decked with precious cloths of different colors. They were greatly in use in the thirteenth century, forming as it were the palladium of each town, whose inhabitants it preceded to the field, and by whom it was defended at every peril; for it was a lasting dishonor to a town to lose its carroccio in battle. Sometimes the chieftain addressed his feudsmen from it, and sometimes even mass was celebrated on a portable altar erected upon it. (Vide Sismondi, and Muratori Delle Antichità Italiane, Tom. I. P. 2, page 198.)

Multitudes had come to the great assembly from cities more distant than those mentioned above. The inhabitants of Bologna, Ferrara, Modena, &c., appeared unarmed, preceded by their bishops, and walking bare-foot in sign of penance. The most celebrated chieftains of the day were on the ground, and most conspicuous amongst them the Marquis of Este, the Signors of Comino, Ezzelino da Romano, and his brother Alberico. According to the chroniclers of the day, the number of people present was more than four hundred thousand, and no less than ten bishops.

Such a spectacle had rarely been seen in Italy before, and the circumstances of such an extraordinary assemblage must have inspired the worthy Dominican preacher with no common eloquence. From a platform sixty feet high, he harangued his immense audience, exhorting them in the name of God and the Holy Father to give to each other the kiss of peace, and forswear those fatal brawls which tended only to exhaust and weaken their country, until it became an easy prey to the watchful invader.⚫

His words had an immediate effect upon every heart. The Ghelph chieftain embraced the Ghibelline whom he had met on the field of battle, and armed to the teeth, three days before; the Capulet kissed the cheek of the Montague whom he would have run through the body, the preceding week, for "biting his thumb" at him; and even the people of Vicenza settled all quarrel with the Florentines, who the year previous had not only besieged their walls,

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but thrown into the town, by means of a machine, the carcase of a donkey as a compliment to the inhabitants. The peace was mutually promised, agreed to, and stipulated by all parties, and the awful sentence of excommunication fulminated against him who should be the first to destroy so holy a work.

Friar John witnessed the successful result of his mission with unbounded satisfaction, and gratitude to God, who had effected it. That the peace might be still better established, he proposed to the assembled parties the marriage of Adelaide daughter of Alberico da Romano, whose brother Ezzelino was the most conspicuous among the Ghibellines, to Prince Rinaldo, son of the Marquis of Este, chief of the Guelphs. This proposition was applauded by all, and the articles of the peace were inscribed and signed in a document which is still extant. (Vide Muratori, Antiq. Ital.)

Friar John had certainly arranged matters satisfactorily amongst the different populations which had listened to his address on the banks of the Adige; and had they been left quietly to themselves they would no doubt have remembered and kept his good advice. But many of the chieftains had only feigned a desire for a peace which would have deprived them of their favorite adventures, and the rich spoils which were their object. Hence it is that they only waited for a plausible pretext to destroy the universal reconciliation which had apparently been effected. New difficulties began to arise very soon, and only a few days passed before several of the cities broke off from the compact at the instigation of these malicious advisers, and only a few months elapsed before all Lombardy was again in a blaze.

It was in vain that the good Dominican made every effort to compose these new dissensions. In vain did he reason with the turbulent princes, and urge them to maintain the stipulations so solemnly agreed upon at the famous meeting. Finding everywhere a deaf ear turned to his remonstrances, and seeing all his attempts fruitless, he retired to his convent in Bologna to meditate upon the instability of human affairs. If the pious father, through human weakness, had allowed some little sentiment of self-complacency

to arise in his heart at the time of his great | strengthen the German ranks. A number speech, and its wonderful effect upon the of Saracens had likewise been enlisted in multitudes, he learned a lesson upon human his pay. But those who seem to have nature, which must have been extremely attracted the greatest share of admiration useful to him in his after-life. It is unfor- were a band of English warriors, armed at tunate that he did not dictate in a form to all points and mounted on richly caparibe preserved, the oration which he had soned steeds. They presented themselves delivered to the Lombards, which must to Frederic, offering him at the same time have been a rare specimen of popular elo- | a large sum of money as a token of friendquence, and his meditations upon the ship from his kinsman Henry III. They sequel of events that followed it, which were gallant fellows, these Island Knights, would be probably no less instructive and and would have liked better, although they entertaining. said but little, to deal their blows on French

The only document relative to those ex-mail, than to spend their lives in sacking traordinary circumstances, which has been and burning Italian hamlets, in the cause handed down to posterity, is a letter of and quarrel of a foreign prince. Pope Gregory IX. to Friar John, wherein he expresses his entire satisfaction with his praiseworthy exertions, and consoles him for their signal and utter failure to effect what they were intended for.

The quarrelsome Lombards paid dearly very soon after for violating promises so solemnly made; and the chief cause of the misfortunes which befell them, was the incorrigible Ezzelino. This turbulent spirit could find no pleasure in a peaceable state of things, so unlike that of his younger days. His first iniquitous act was to create a renewal of civil war in Verona. But not satisfied with so small a scheme of mischief, he engaged in a far more perilous and treacherous enterprise by writing to Frederic II. Emperor of Germany, exhorting him to pass the Alps, and enter into Lombardy, at the head of a powerful army. Frederic was not slow in following the advice of his faithful adherent.

He resolved to carry war into the very heart of the country, to urge on and encourage its progress by his presence on the spot, and to strike at once at the strongest bulwarks of the national party. Whatever advantages his cause might have obtained in Lombardy, the two important cities of Milan and Brescia were yet unconquered, and their resistance to all the former efforts of his faction rankled in the mind of the proud Emperor. By the advice of Ezzelino he determined, upon his arrival in Italy, to attempt first the capture of Brescia as the easier to overcome of the two obnoxious cities.

A florid army bearing the imperial standard entered Verona in 1238. Several cities of Italy had sent their forces to

The imperial army, after having reduced the surrounding country to a howling desert, sat down before Brescia strong in number, and well provided in the different machines of siege then in use, the Emperor being firmly resolved not to withdraw from the place before having planted the German standard on the towers of its citadel.

He had, however, no easy bone to contend for. The Brescians were distinguished among their neighbors for enterprise and perseverance, and understanding well that from Frederic and Ezzelino they had no mercy to hope for, they determined to fight to the last for their beloved city, and at least sell their lives at a price not soon to be forgotten. While the hostile army was advancing, they had furnished the town with all the stores necessary to sustain a lengthened siege. It discouraged them in some measure, to think that they were totally deprived of the warlike machinery which rendered the beleaguering army doubly formidable. But they were fortunately delivered from this exigency by an occurrance which they considered as a special interposition of Providence in behalf of their just cause.

Some of their people, while foraging in the vicinity for provisions, had entrapped a Spaniard on his way from Germany towards the imperial camp, and brought him prisoner into Brescia. This traveller was discovered to be a man of great acquirements in various branches, but above all a thorough adept in the art of constructing all manner of engines of war offensive and defensive, and in the science of equipping and directing them, whatever their shape or calibre. His new entertainers were de

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