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and the Prince of Prussia met at Troppau to concert measures for
crushing the Carbonari.
In January, 1821, they met Ferdinand I. at Laybach and then took
arms against Naples. Naples capitulated on the 20th of March, and
on the 24th of March, 1821, its Revolutionary council was closed. A
decree of April 10th condemned to death all persons who attended
meetings of the Carbonari, and the result was a great accession to
the strength of this secret society, which spread its branches over
Germany and France.
On the 19th of February, 1821, Silvio Pellico was transferred to
imprisonment under the leads, on the isle of San Michele, Venice.
There he wrote two plays, and some poems. On the 21st of February,
1822, he and his friend Maroncelli were condemned to death; but,
their sentence being commuted to twenty years for Maroncelli, and
fifteen years for Pellico, of carcere duro, they entered their
underground prisons at Spielberg on the 10th of April, 1822. The
government refused to transmit Pellico's tragedies to his family,
lest, though harmless in themselves, the acting of them should bring
good-will to a state prisoner. At Spielberg he composed a third
tragedy, Leoniero da Dordona, though deprived of books, paper, and
pens, and preserved it in his memory. In 1828, a rumour of
Pellico's death in prison caused great excitement throughout Italy.
On the 17th of September, 1830, he was released, by the amnesty of
that year, and, avoiding politics thenceforth, devoted himself to
religion. The Marchesa Baroli, at Turin, provided for his
maintenance, by engaging him as her secretary and librarian. With
health made weaker by his sufferings, Silvio Pellico lived on to the
age of sixty-five, much honoured by his countrymen. Gioberti
dedicated a book to him as "The first of Italian Patriots." He died
at Turin on the 1st of February, 1854.
Silvio Pellico's account of his imprisonment, Le Mie Prigioni, was
first published in Paris in 1833. It has been translated into many
languages, and is the work by which he will retain his place in
European literature. His other plays, besides the two first named,
were Eufemia di Messina; Iginia di Asti; Leoniero da Dordona,
already named as having been thought out at Spielberg; his Gismonda;
l'Erodiade; Ester d'Engaddi; Corradino; and a play upon Sir Thomas
More. He wrote also poems, Cantiche, of which the best are Eligi e
Valfrido and Egilde; and, in his last years, a religious manual on
the Duties of Men.
H. M.
AUTHOR'S PREFACE.
Have I penned these memorials, let me ask myself, from any paltry
vanity, or desire to talk about that self? I hope this is not the
case, and forasmuch as one may be able to judge in one's own cause,
I think I was actuated by better views. These, briefly, were to
afford consolation to some unfortunate being, situated like myself,
by explaining the evils to which I was exposed, and those sources of
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