The Express.
London, England, 1851-03-05 00:00:00

ITALY.

TURIN, FT.R. 2s,

In the sitting of the Chamber of Deputies on the
27th, the Nlinister of Commerce, in answer to inter-
pellations from M. Balbo, declared that the govern-
ment had never believed in the reports of conspira-
cies against the liberties of Piedmont, and that the
announecnient in the Gazette was intended to con-
tradict such rumours.

ROME, Frs. 24,
To cut the Gordian knot of papal pretensions, by
assassinating the Pope himself, is an idea which, fOr
the honour of England be it said, could never passi-
ble enter the head of an Englishman ; what, then,
will your readers in general, and the lovers of the
marvellous in particular, think when they hear that
the English residents in this city have not only been
suspected of such an iniquitous plot, but that the at-
tention of the police has been so far turned to the
absurd and calumnious suggestion as to cause secret
investigations to be made on the subject, the docu-
cuments belonging to which have already reached a
most voluminous bulk, and arc not yet complete?
The story, however, is too good to be abridged of
its details, which are as follows: The cler-
gyman officiating at the English protestant
chapel last winter was the 11ev. Mr. Bassett. who
took up his residence at No. 33, Via della Mercede,
and engaged a woman servant, named Euphrasia
Moses, and aged about sixty years. During the
winter. the members of the church committee met
several times, as has always been customary, at the
house of the clergyman, in order to discuss questions
relative to the expenses of the chapel, the sums
collected front visitors and residents, allotments of
burial-grounds. distributions of charities, and other
I details of the administration, which meetings were
regularly attended also by the committee's agent,
Signor 'Paolo Sertori, a native of Ancona, but a
naturalised British subject, a most respectable per
, son, who, for many years, acted as cabinet courier for
the British government, and has for the last ten or
twelve years transacted all the minutiae connected
with the English protestant chapel at Itome.
The woman servant Euphrasia, seeing Signor Ser-
tori come frequently to her master's house, took an
opportunity one day of informing him that she was
not originally in the humble condition in which she
then appear:A, but that before being reduced, by the
death of her husband and other misfortunes, to her
present distress, she had figured in her native city of
Pesaro as the Marchioness Mosea, and had especially
enjoyed the acquaintance of l'io Nono himself, as
well as the friendship of the whole Mastai Ferretti
family. Signor Sertori condoled with the ex-Mar-
chesa upon her misfortunes, and expressed a wish
that her quondam friends would soon be able to do
something for her. In fact, when the Pope returned
from Portici in the spring, the Marehema prepared a
petition, and requested Signor Sertori to find out
some means of getting it conveyed to the palace.
which Signor Sertori, who was acquainted with the
Pope's valet-dc-ehambre, Zungolino, good-natur-
edly enough promised to do through his in-
terposition. Zangolino, however, declined pre-
senting the memorial to his holiness, on the plea
of having been expressly prohibited from under-
taking any such commission. and Signor Sertori re-,
ported his ill success to Euphrasia, who seemed
much mortified and irritated at it. Things went on
as usual for sonic weeks, until Sertori perceived that
he was always dogged by two or three spies, who
never left him from the moment he went out of his
house to the moment he returned hone ; but, having
nothing to fear from the police. he felt no tmensiness
at the circumstance. Meanwhile, in the month of
May, Mr. Bassett left Rome, and in the month of
June following Sertori was honoured with a noctur-
nal domiciliary visit from the sbirri (an event which
you will remember as being mentioned in my corre-
spondence of that month), who examined all his
papers, and took away some books, which, however,
were subsequently restored to him.
In the beginning of the present year Signor
Sertori was summoned to present himself be-
fore tho police authorities, who questioned
him very closely touching his acquaintance with
the Pope's valet, Zangolino, and accused him of
lholding mysterious and secret conferences with the
said Zangolinn, and introducing him to the gentle-
men of the English chapel committee in Mr. Bas-
sett's house; which circumstances Sertori positively
denied, although he admitted knowing Zangolino,
from having seen him freauently at Sinigaglia.
After a minute examination Sexton was allowed to
depart, but was again summoned a few days subse-
quently, by a servant in the palace livery, who in-
formed him that the l'ope's nephew, (punt Luigi
Mastai, requested to see him on the following morning.
I should not omit to state that on leaving the Police-
office Signor Sertori immediately repaired to the
palace and informed Zangolino of what had occurred,
expressing a fear that some suspicions, although lie
could not imagine of what nature, weighed upon both
of them, to which the valet replied that those suspicions
explained the sort of disgrace into which he had fallen
at court, having. been denied a passport for Sini-
gaglia, and deprived of the privilege of shaving his
holiness, which he had enjoyed for many years, and
regularly continued at Gaeta and Portici, during the
Pope's residence there, and having, moreover, been
gradually dispensed from all personal attendance on
his holiness, and attached more especially to the
service of his nephew, Count Luigi.
In his interview with the count, Signor Sertori
finally learned the amount of the imputations cast
upon him, as Count Luigi frankly avowed to him
that the sui-fliaant marehesa, who had represented
herself as a respectable lodging-house keeper, bad
accused him of plotting, together with several
English gentlemen who met at Mr. Bassett's rooms,
against the life of the Pope, and had positively
sworn that, by listening at the key-hole, she heard
Sertori assure the committee that the Pope's valet,
Zangolino, was entirely at their orders, and
would cut his masters throat, whilst shaving
him, any morning that would suit their
convenience. Sertori replied that the marchesa
was no other than the housemaid in Mr. Bassett's
1 family, that Zangolino had never been to the house,
and that all the conversation between himself and
the gentlemen of the church committee had taken
place in English, which language the marehesa had
no pretension to understand, and therefore could
'scarcely overhear with any profit. The count ap-
peared satisfied with the explanation, but stated that
another man-servant in the same house had been
mentioned by the woman as having seen Zangolino
backwards and forwards; he, however, when con-
fronted with Zangolino, in the count's presence,
swore that be had never set eyes on him before.
Signor Sertori then despatched a letter to Pesaro, to
make inquiries, through a friend of his, respecting
the family of the marchesa, and received an answer,
dated the Ist February, assuring him that the hus-
band of the pretended widowed marchioness was
still alive and hearty, that he continued to
keep his shop of old clothes, and other
Jewish sorts of merchandise• that he still
exercised the calling of a pawnbroker, that he kept
two females in his house, and was still honoured by
the tow:nspc:oe with the nickname of " Mambo*
ThisMown.' important document, explaining
the origin of the woman's
.pretensions to a title, has
been shown to Count Luim, who kept it some days,
and probably sent it to the Pope himself; but the
marchesa will not yield her claim to nobility, and
continues to frequent the palace, dressed in 'black,
with interminable stories of English plots and con-
spiracies. The object of this infamous woman's in-
ptntnotifngresh•etargeon
vScenrttoiorinsaanpdPerangotoliitveforbeenont
peti-
tion to the Pope, and a pecuniary recompense from
the government for the :importance of her pretended
revelations, which seem to have been made, in the
first instance, to her confessor, the parish curate, and,
, subsequently. in a memorial addressed to his holi-
ness, whicli she succeeded in getting delivered to
him. The pecuniary recompense she has hitherto
enjoyed, in the shape of a monthly pension

paid her ever since the communication of her
evidente ; but her vengeance has only been
partially wreaked on Sertori and Zangolino, the
former of whom was only tormented by spies abroad
and 4birri at home, and the latter merely degraded
from the honour of handling the holy father's chin ;
whereas they might both have been in the galleys
long ago had the police authorities been, as is too
I often the ease, more rapid in their conclusions, or the
Count Luigi Nlastai less candid and straight-forward
in his mode of treating the ease. As it is, the pro- •
r, so', or legal investigations are going on, although
it is to be hoped they will conclude in the unmask- ,
ing and severe punishment of the ani-disant marchion-
ess, especially as Signor Sertori is to be confronted
ere long with her and Zangolino, in the presence of
Count Luigi and Monsignor Rutini, the director of
the police. I shall not fail to communicate the re-
sult of the proceedings as soon as any thing decided
takes place: meanwhile, one cannot sufficiently praise
the moderation with which the government has
acted, when one considers its weakness and timidity,
and the alarming nature of the intelligence commu-
nicated by the woman.
Archbishop Hughes preached on the Eucharistical
doctrine, yesterday afternoon. In order to collect
together as large an audience as possible, he had
caused the following significant notice to be printed
and abundantly pasted up all about Rome :
" Church of St. Andrea dells Fratte. On Sexagesima
Sunday, Feb. 23, at 2 o'clock, in the above church,
after the English sermon, which will he preached by
the Very Rev. Dr. Hughes, Archbishop of New York,
there will be a collection in aid of defraying the ex-
pense of erecting a large catholic church and schools
in the centre of London, fur all English subjects,
and particularly for Italians and other foreigners,
who arc very numerous in that city. Some ladies of
the aristocracy will stand at the doors to receive the
. offerings." Whether the archbishop thought that
the aristocratic ladies standing at the doors would
have the same effect in bringing people into the
church that 0/ nut and Harlequin have outside a
players' booth in inducing a countryman to spend
his two-pence to behold the wonders inside, or not,
I really cannot say; but, jesting apart, the word
aristocracy appeared to me unadapted to the house
of God, and unbecoming a clergyman from the land
of liberty and equality. The aristocratic ladies,
after all, were too aristocratic to stand at the doors,
but they condescended to sit inside the church, with
large ;aver trays before them, to receive the funds
for erecting the great catholic church in the centre of
London.