OFB O'F
GA.JllliAl.DI .than .Annita mace a sign to stop, and she almost fell to the ground, so
ntterly was she
Garibaldi and his comrade hastened to support her and bear her to a
neighbouring farm, where they hoped to find food, and means to carry
her to a place of security. But, on arriving there, they learned from
some sailors that the Austrians were 'Close on their track, and they were
foreed to fttreat at full speed. Fortunately, .a nobly-minded man'aup
plied.a phaeton, with which tho ilight was continued during
T01rards evening the three fugitives had arrived at a cheese farm at no
great distance from Ravenna, the property of the Marquis Guiccioli,
where the ill-fated Annita fainted. They stopped at onoe, and went to
aak asylum and help .-.at the nearest spot. Garibaldi toek his precic)us
borden in his arms, oarried the Irick woman to a bed piously offered
by the good l'lUiic&, whom noble sentiment& of humanity oaused to forget
the ferocious menaces of the A11strian Proconsul, &Dod, after having asiled
for a draught, with which her husbmd tried to refresh her porched
she expired-victim of :conjugal afl'eetiou, and DIAl'Vellous 1eal for the
cause of the people. May Italy raise a monument to euch a woman,
which will reDder her memory immortal !
This anexpected loss struck Garibaldi stupor, and if ho did :not
ehed a tear upon his wife's corpse, it1us because, hardened by misfortune,
by a long erile, and the woes hiJ country 1utFered, tJae .sources of tears
were dried up; still, the pallor wl1ich ·has covered his, face .since that
catastrophe, remains :as an ineffaceable of the grief be suffered.
The fear of compromiaing the honest. farmers, who,. were he 11urprised in
their houses by the Austrians, ·would have 1ufl'ered dearly for the hospi
tality they granted, decidoo Garibaltli .on departing so aoon as, with his
comrade's help, .he had .given a humble barial to his wife's borly in Ill
adjoining field.
The pity and respect of the poor farmers who had granted an asrlum
to the dying induced them to keep her burying-place a secret
till l:ctter times. This was the desire of her unhappy husband. and it
was to their advantage too, though they did not talre that into oonai
deration. Unhappily the instinct of a fiiVourite dog of the deceased
rendered all precautions futile. The poor brate, :seeking its mistre11s,
scratched up the soil in which she was buried, to aneh ;an ·extent, . that
attention was attracted, and tllc mystery discovered. "'"itll the Austrians
hatred is not extinguiBhed even in presence of a tomb ; and the pious
persons who had aceomplisked a deed of humanity, paid witll impr:aon
ment for the crime of sheltering rebels.
LJ.
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