The Express.
London, England, 1867-04-18 00:00:00

LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, APRIL 18, 1867.

TELEGRAPHIC INTELLIGENCE.

(nurse's =rows.)

THE ALLEGED PRUSSIAN ARMAMENTS.
BERLIN, APRIL IT.
_ _ _

An official declaration has been published here
with regard to various rumours current Ss to
Prussian armaments.

The declaration states that with the exception of
the increased organisation in the line and landwehr
begun last autumn and now completed, rendered
necessary by the new acquisitions of territory, no
special military measures have been at present
adopted.
The Rhenish fortresses are not yet armed. No
unusual demands have been made upon the are-arm
factories. The stock of needle-guns in the depots
was already sufficient to furnish the arms required
without further expenditure.

THE LUXEMBURG QUESTION.

PARIS, Aran, 17.

The Constitutionne/ of this evening says :—" We
learn from a reliable source that the government of
the Netherlands, wishing once more to cenfirra.the
fact that no connection exists between it and the
government of the Grand Duchy of LuxenSurg,
and that Holland and Luxemburg form two states,
with two perfectly distinct governments, has
ordered its diplomatic agents to refrain henceforth
from taking any part in the affairs of the Grand
Duchy, and from all interference in anything re-
lating to the interests of the inhabitants of that
country."

BERLIN, APRIL 17, EVENING.

All the recent statements in Continental journals
of diplomatic declarations having been made by the
Governments of France and Prussia, respecting the
Grand Duchy of Luxemburg, are semi-officially de-
clared to be without foundation. No diplomatic
communications whatever have recently been ex-
changed on the Luxemburg question, and the
affair is at present completely at a standstill.

ITALY.

FLORENCE, APRIL 17.

Signor Ferrara, the Minister of Finance, is
busily engaged in drawing up a financial project.
All the rumours current in this city of his intended
resignation are unfounded.

FRANCE.

(110 NE 00/1 OWN CORBEESPONDLIT.)

PARIS, TOZSDAT EVIKINO.

A curious story of the great revolution has just
been unfolded in a Paris court of law. On June
11, 1794, Baron de Saint-Ouen Dernemont, one of
the grey mousquetaires of Louis EV.'s body guard,
and the Baronne de Saint-Ouen Dernemont, his
wife, were tried by the revolutionary tribunal and
sent to the scaffold on the same day. They left
five children, two sons and three daughters. So
far back as July, 1789, Baron Dernemont and his
sons left Versailles to share the voluntary exile
of the Count d'Artoie. The Baroness Dernemont,
left in Paris with her three daughters fell into a
date of the most distressing poverty. In 1794, she
wrote praising letters to the baron beseeching
him to return. He at length complied with her
request—too soon for himself, for he was arrested
almost immediately, and executed as above stated ;
but too late for the welfare of his family.
Some time in 1791, one of his daughters, the
noble demoiaelle Sophie de Saint-Ouen Dernemont,
left her mother's house, and adopting the prin-
ciples of "free love," became the mistress of a
roturier, named Louis Fontaine, who lived with
her for several months in the Rue de l'Universite.
Shocking to relate, this M. Louis Fontaine turned
her adrift after the birth of a child, and installed
her sister, the noble demoiselle Fillicitd do Saint-
Ouen Dernemont, in her place. What became of
Mdlle. Sophie for several years after this desertion
does not appear, but on January 10, 1799, she
consoled herself by marrying a man named Ignard,
who had been a journeyman baker, but had then
acquired some money by lucky speculations, and
afterwards became one of the richest bankers under
the Empire. M. Ignard died without issue in 1814,
leaving his widow a very large fortune, the greater
part of which she gave up to her husband's
relations. Years rolled on, during which
Madame Ignard lived in the most absolute retire-
ment, obscure and forgotten. She persisted in
refusing to see any of her relations, till they gave
up the attempt. Her establishment consisted of a
single woman servant, and the only stranger who
ever crossed her threshold during the latter years
of her life was a humble government empioyi, to
whom she gave 100 franca a month to read the news-
papers to her. It was only last year, on April 25,
1866, that the noble daughter of Louis XV.'s
mousquetaire quitted this world, in which she
had led such a chequered and extraordinary life, at
the age of 95 years. It was then found that her
savings out of the small pittance which she had re-
served to herself in the distribution of her hus-
band's succession amounted to the handsome sum
of 400,000 f. Sixteen nephews and nieces came
forward to claim this inheritance. But a title para-
mount, of which they were not dreaming, has been
established by the court, which carries off three-
fourths of the prize. During the short period in
1791 that Louis Fontaine lived with Mdlle. Sophie,
a daughter was born who was " recognized " in the
Pariah register of St. Thomas Aquinas as their
natural child. A Monsieur Jerome and a Madame
Berlet have proved without difficulty that they are
the only children of that natural child, who died
in her mother's lifetime. The French law is that
a " recognized " natural child takes three-fourths
of the succession as against collaterals, and the
court has accordingly decreed M. Jerome and
Madame Berlet entitled to 300,000 f. out of
Madame Ignard's property, while the sixteen legi-
timate nephews and nieces will only get 100,000 E.
among them.

The Florence correspondent of the Mints men-
tions that an Italian paper, not wanting in political saga-
city, though its language is at times somewhat trivial, re.
eently said : " Schleswig gave us Venice—Luxemburg wil
give us Rome."
THE KING OF DENMARK AND THE LONDON FIRE
BRIGADE-It will be recollected that during the recent
visit of the King of Denmark to London, his Majesty, in
company with the Prince of Wales, inspected the metro-
politan fire brigade, for the purpose of acquiring informa-
tion of its general management. His MajestT paid a
second visit to the station, and accompanied Captain Shaw,
the chief of the force, to a fire which happened to brut
out at the time in the neighbourhood of Walworth,
where the King bad an opportunity of observing the
brigade in working order. The day previous to his
Majesty's departure for Copenhagen, Captain Shaw
received the foliowing communication from his Ma-
jesty :—" Marlborough-house, Pall-mall, April 11, 1867.
Dear Sr,—By command of his Majesty I have the
honour to ask your acceptance of a little souvenir, which
the King wishes you to keep in remembrance of your kind
assistance in procuring his Majesty the practical acquaint-
ance and knowledge of your excellent fire corps and its
admirable management,—l am, Sc. (signed) ()THOLE.
Captain E. M. Shaw, Chief of the Brigade." The souvenir
was a magnificent gold ring, richly enamelled, and deco-
rated with the imperial crown and the royal initials,
"C. R. IR." in brilliant diamonds. On his Majesty's
first visit to the head station of the fire brigade in Wat-
ling-street with the Prince of Wales, the fact was recorded
by themselves in the brigade orderly-book thus:—" Visited
the station, and found all correct. A. K, CHRISTIAN
OF Dammam."

BRIGANDAGE IN THE PAPAL STATES.

(raox OUR SPECIAL CORRZSPONDENE)
SUBIACO, APRIL 9.

With such cheerful adieus from my friends as,
"I hope you will disagree with the brigands, who
eat you," ringing in my ears, and not over en-
couraged by the parting question of my banker,
" How much do you authorise me to pay for your
ransom on the receipt of a bit of an ear or the end
of your nose ?" I set out from Rome on Thursday
last, alone and on horseback, bound for Ardea, the
capital of the ancient Rutuli. Of Ardea, from
whose lofty citadel Tunny; gave the signal for war
to the knife with the Trojans on their first arrival
in Latium, even in Virgil's day little else remained
but the name :

" Locus Allies quondam

Diane &vie ; et nuno magnum menet Arden nomen,

Bed fortuna fait."
At the present day the site of the ancient Rutulian
citadel is occupied by a castle belonging to the

Sforza-Cesarini family, which owns the country
round, and about whose lordly dwelling are clus-
tered the meaner habitations of their dependents,
most of whom fly to the Alban hills for refuge from
the malaria which desolates the place in summer
time.
Provided with a letter of recommendation,
I felt great confidence of a favourable re
caption, as, with the bridle of my horse
thrown over my arm, I scaled on foot the
steep ascent leading to the family cantle. On
reaching the main entrance, however, I
was somewhat taken aback at learning from
a couple of carpenters at work in putting up a stout
door, that the building was absolutely untenanted.
Producing my letter to the housekeeper, I was
directed towards the humble dwellings above
alluded to, and presently found myself in the pre-
sence of a young woman, answering to the name of
Maria Fatiganti, to whom my letter was addressed.
The lady turning out to be no scholar, and her
husband being abroad, I was forthwith solemnly
called upon to read my credentials aloud in public.
With this request I forthwith proceeded to comply.
No sooner had I concluded than orders were given
all round to everybody to hold themselves in readi-
ness to do everything for me, with which orders
everybody complied for the remainder of my stay,
which was thereby rendered highly agreeable. For
the night I had the whole castle to myself, not
another human being sleeping under the same roof,
an experience which was rendered somewhat ex-
citing by a story current about Ardea, that a few
weeks before brigands had entered the place, killed
a man and a woman, whose heart they had cut out,
boiled, and eaten.
Early next morning, with a whole heart, and ears
and nose still entire, after enjoying a beautiful
view at sunrise over the woods, which stretch down
the valley from the castle to the blue Mediterra-
nean, some three miles distant, I bade adieu to
Ardea, and passing under an imposing fragment of
a massive Pelasgic wall, turned my horse's head in
the direction of the Alban hills. On every side of
me extended an undulating grassy table land, in-
tersected at intervals by deep ravines, the sides of
which were richly clothed with feathery woods,
presenting every shade of green, from the dark
sombre ilex to the tender green of the alder and
willow. Over this delightful region, which is quite
unspoiled by any kind of civilization, and not tra-
versed by a single carriage road, you may wander
at will on horseback, keeping no particular track,
and steering only by some peak of the Alban bills,
or some conspicuous castle-crowned paese

Like an eagle's nest,
Perched on the crest
Of purple Appenine.

Striking the hills at Civita Lavinia, where I
lunched in a dark wine-vault with a party of card-
playing ruffians, potential if not actual brigands,
I had the misfortune soon after to find myself re-
duced to following the dusty highroad, the Via
Appia Nuova, which leads from Rome to Velletri,
whither I was bound.

At Velletri, where I met with more than " mo-
dioo hospitio" at the sign of "Il Gallo," I passed
the rest of the day in endeavouring to collect in-
formation about the actual state of brigandage in
the province, and the reported insecurity of the
roads. Raving by a curioua accident fallen into the
society of the captain, lieutenant, and marshal ser-
geant) of the gendartnia), and conversed with them
all separately, and at some length, I enjoyed as good
an opportunity as one well could have of getting at
the truth of the matter. What I learned from the
lieutenant and sergeant—who informed me that
musketry of the brigands had been heard outside
the walls of Velletri that very afternoon, and that
Monaignore Pericoli, delegate of the province
of Frosinone and suppressor-general of bri-
gands, who had been making a reconnoitring
expedition into the hills of the robbers, had had
to fly ignominiously for his life—was so little en-
couraging, that I had almost made up my mind that
it would be sheer madness to make the excursion

which I was contemplating to the interesting
Pelasgic settlements of Cori and Segni, situated
well within the enemy's country. Somewhat re-
assured, however, by my interview with the
captain, who seemed an active and intelligent
of remarkably with the lieutenant,
who was evidently a swaggering, and probably
a cowardly lounger, and who, being in much need
of putting down himself, seemed a most unlikely
man to put down brigands—l decided after all to
risk it, and see Cori and Segni at any price.
To reach Cori from Velletri, which stands con-
spicuously on the southern slope of the Alban hills,
you have to cross a rich, well-wooded plain, which
extends to the Volecian hills, among the lower
slopes of which, and embedded in olive groves,
nestle the picturesque towns of Cori, Norba,
Sermoneta, Basciano, and further south towards
Terracina, Sonnino—the birth-place of the Anto-
nail), and the foster-mother of brigands. To
what extent this is literally a fact I happen to
have some most precise information, gathered
from an individual but too intimately
acquainted with the ins and outs of brigandage.
That the number of brigands operating within
the Papal States could be known even approxi-
mately was to me something quite unexpected,
but I am assured that there are but 52 actually
subjects of the Pope, and some 400 " Regnicoli,"
or natives of "Il Regno," "the kingdom of
Naples," and consequently subjects of Victor
Emmanuel. Of the 52 who belong to the Papal
States, 30 are known to be natives of the single
commune of Sonnino ! A sore subject of reflection
this, one would think, for his Excellency the
Cardinal Secretary of State.