The Sun.
London, England, 1869-02-23 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 23, 1869.

THE SERRISTORI CONSPIRACY.

(From a Correspondent.)
ROME, FEE.- 15.

The recent controversy respecting the execution of
Monti and Tognetti will have revived in the memories of
your readers that memorable incident of the Garibaldian
invasion, the blowing up of the Pontifical barrack at
Serristori. It will be remembered that in the latter days
of October 1867 Monti was hired by some of the Roman
conspirators in league with the Garibaldians to blow up
the Serristori barracks by a mine, and that, with the
assistance of a man named Tognetti, he accomplished his
task. Several Zouaves were killed and wounded. Monti
and Tognetti were tried, and, after twelve months'
interval, were put to death for the crime. The
facts are now before me in a collected form, by the
publication of the legal proceedings of the Roman Con-
sulta, and they are too remarkable not to merit a brief
recapitulation. In presenting your readers with an
abbreviated narrative, I think it better to give them the
authorities from which the facts are drawn. They are the
sworn depositions of the various witnesses called on the
trial. Several other details are furnished by the docu-
ments published by the Italian Government itself after
Alentana, in justification of its zeal in the national
cause.

The revolutionary party at Florence having waived its
differences with the Italian Government, came in the
month of August, 1867, to a full understanding with
Rattazzi as to the Roman question. The final attempt
was settled to be made in September 1867, Garibaldi
taking the field, in the first instance, with his volunteers
and a considerable number of troops of the Royal army,
travestied as Garibaldians, and pushing as far a the walls
of Rome, where it was arranged that an insur-
rection
should break out on the 22nd vof October.
The choice of Garibaldi and Rattazzi fell on Francesco '
Cucchi, of Bergamo, then and now a deputy of the Italian
Parliament, and a major of the Garibaldian Volunteers.
, The supreme direction of the internal insurrection was
confided to him, while Luigi Castelazzo, of Pavia, Tito
Navona, Giuseppe Castagnola, Giuseppe Ansiglioni, a
Roman emigrant, and Giulio Silvestri, an officer of the
royal Italian army, was appointed as his subalterns.
Cucchi immediately started for Rome, and entered it
by means of a false passport. The communications with
Florence were maintained through the Royal Delegate
of Police at Carrese, Signor Buglielli, who acted as
the paymaster, commissioner, and go-between of
the Garibaldians and Rattazzi. Hidden in the most
out-of-the-way quarters of Rome, living under a false
name, and known only to a few of his most trusted
associates, Cucchi remained in Rome during the greater
part of September and October organising the insurrection.
Cucchi's plan was simply this : In order to create confu-
sion, spread disorder and consternation among the Papal
troops, and favour an internal rising, he gave orders to
mine several of the principal barracks occupied by the
Papal troops, and especially by the Zouaves. Those of
Serristori and Cimmorra were decided on, as the other
barracks were occupied by Italian Pontifical troops, whom
Cuccbi (most erroneously) calculated on as friends rather
than enemies. He had also succeeded in penetrating in
disguise into Fort St. Angelo, and had corrupted several
of the non-commissioned officers and privates of artillery
on guard, and induced them to promise to blow up the
powder magazine at a given signal, and spike the cannon
under their charge, seizing at the same time on the officers,
and scattering Orsini bombs, introduced for that purpose
into Rome, among the Zouaves and Legionaires.
eexplosionry of t
oS efirnr s tao r wa
na sc fullyapab de eocfi deexde
connt,i
nagn dt
hiet
becamed
coup. Such a one was Monti, the mason, born of respect-
able parents, who had come to seek work at Rome, but
who fell into the society of the Garibaldians. The plot
was opened to Monti, who states that he at first recoiled
in horror, but by threats of death and promises was ulti-
mately persuaded. He was taken in a carriage to Serristori
through the Borgo St. Spirito, and getting down at the
adjacent Palazzo Marone, part of which was occupied as
a stable, the master of which it would be necessary to
take into their confidence. This was the more safely
accomplished, as he was an old Garibaldian, and an agree-
ment was made by which Monti was to lay a train and two
barrels of powder in the vaults under the barrack, by
means of the stable adjoining it, and a grate which had
been left to go to decay.
Monti was therefore lowered by a rope into the vault,
and reported the matter as practicable, a side door in the
cellar conducting to that beneath the barrack. Two days
passed, and he took measures with a locksmith, named
Gaetano Tognetti, a young man of 23 years of age, but
high in the confidence of Bassi and Cucchi, to obtain the
keys necessary for opening the door without giving rise to
suspicion.
On the 20th of October the stableman suddenly disap-
peared, writing from Turin that he had been sent for by
his mother, who was ill. It appears certain, however,
that he had given information to the police, or the next
day a number of arrests was made, and deposits of
hatchets and Orsini bombs seized, and the alarm having
having been given at Castle St. Angelo, the officers con-
trived to separate the men they suspected from the rest,
and to empty the powder-magazine, without, however,
giving any reason or communicating their fears to the
regiment at large. Bossi Anziglioni, Cucchi, and Perfetti
changed their residence first to the Tor Dei Specchi and
afterwards to the Via Dei Crescenzi, No. 50, where the
meetings were then held.
Monti was summoned to their presence on Tuesday,
the 22nd, and found them in _private conversation
with four . unknown persons, whom by their
accent he knew to be Genoese. On leaving the
house lie met Barzelli, who asked him where he was going,
and on Monti replying that he was going to dine,
" Have not the gentlemen received any orders y:lt ?:,11.1onrei
is no time to waste. We are to rise to-day ; the order.; t
replied that he did not know, and Barzelli said, '1 here
come." " By day ?" said Monti. " By day oriebihrneleah
or,
as it may happen," replied Barzelli.
a.eorn7warn
He vftlrinemng.
four o'clock probably. Go back at once
You will
• Monti went back immediately
have received the oretal
to find Ansiglioni and the rest, and found them dining,
tVsl lh
see
ed
tahneX ebf at
and discos ered that they were perfectly ignorant that the
revolution was to break out that day, and when lie told
; them what he had heard from Barzelli, they broke
into a howl, saying that it could not be, for nothing was
prepared. In the midst of this conversation Cucchi
I entered, and calling Ansiglioni, Silvestro, and Per-
; fetti into the inner room, remained in consultation with
them. Ammanniti was called in, and despatched On some
errand, and then Angelo Tognetti, after which Cucchi
left the house. Monti was told to get into a carriage
and go with Ammanniti, whom he would find in it, to the
Via Sellegrini, and there ask for a uniform, which he was
to carry to 2, Piazza della Rotonda, and give to four indi-
viduals who were waiting for it, which lie accordingly did,
taking the carriage back to the house. Perfetti and
Ansiglioni and Silvesti got in, telling Monti to wait for
them. After an hour's absence Perfetti and Ansiglioni
returned, the latter in a great state of agitation, saying,
" Angelo Tognetti is not yet arrived. Everyone will
fulfil this duty to-night save myself ! No end of money
has been spent, and nothing done. What will Nicotera
say ? and what a figure I shall make." At length, out of
patience, he turned to Monti, saying, " Go at once to the
Borgo. Find Angelo. Tell him to get his people ready.
Get the key from Serristori, and bring it- back to.
me directly." Having met Angelo Tognetti, he
assured Monti that all was ready, and that Gaetano
Tognetti had the keys and the address of the
young man who was to accompany him. Having
found Gaetano Tognetti, he gave the false keys to Monti.
They had been made to open the magazine of the Papal
engineers, adjoining Terristori, and whose vaults ran
under the barrack itself—a measure which had been
resolved on when the flight of the stable-man closed
the other means of ingress. Having returned to
Ansiglioni and reported progress, he said to Monti,
" Listen, Peppe, exactly to what you must do. Go
directly to the Bargo, and bring me the two soldiers you
know of, and the boy, as I wish to instruct them. Then
take a cab and go to Banchi Nuovi to the little tinman's
shop. Give him this half of a five-franc note as a counter-
sign. Send on the cab and keep it behind the Nicolo della
Campanella. They will open you a door on that street,
and will give you two barrels of powder. Put it into the
carriage, and go straight to Serristori. The locksmith
will open the door, and the two soldierswill put the barrels
in and stand sentry while you do what I tell you. You
will take the two barrels and place them so that the
mouths touch, and connect them with this tin
pipe. On this you will spread a little powder, which
they will give you, loose, and you will fire the train at
twenty minutes to seven by means of the tow attached
to the pipe, which will give you twenty minutes to
save yourself. At seven, the mine will blow up, and the
explosion is to be the signal for the revolution to begin."
Monti listened without offering a word of reply till
Ansiglioni had finished, when he flatly refused to accept
such a task, and said that those who had planned it
ought to carry it out themselves. On this Perfetti flew
into a violent rage, and taking up a revolver, held it to
' his head, threatening to blow out his brains if he did
not go at once, or if he repeated his refusal. He added
that the present evening was not one for joking, that
he was perfectly serious' and that Monti, if he refused,
would be massacred first of all, whereas, if he consented,
lie would be rewarded next day by Garibaldi. Ansiglioni
also made him the most advantageous offers, and pointed
out to him that when he had done his work he alone of
all of them would be exempt from fighting, and would go
quietly home. Between threats and promises Monti
yielded. Half an hour after sunset he started on his fatal
mission, and found the young guide Peppe and two
soldiers of the line in red trousers and grey capotes
(corporal and private) waiting. They got into the cab and
drove back to Via Crescenzi, where Ansiglioni and Per-
fetti gave them their final instructions. Ansiglioni asked
Monti if lie had a watch, and on his replying in the nega-
tive gave him his own, and thirty scudi to divide between
Peppe and the two soldiers, Perfetti warning Monti as he
left that his steps were watched, and that woe be to him if
he failed the cause.
The four companions then mounted the cab, and drove
to Nicolo Campanella, where Monti left the cab,
the soldiers, and Peppe, and turning into the
Bandu Nuovi, went to the tin-shop, and found
it open, but dark, and no one there save a little
boy, who told him his master had gone out, but
would be back directly. He therefore lighted a cigar and
waited a few minutes, when four unknown individuals,
all wrapped in cloaks and hoods, passed by, and one,
detaching himself from the group, called Monti by his
name, and asked him what he was doing, and why he had
not gone to Serristori ? Monti, seeing he was cognisant of
the affair, answered that the master of the shop from whom
he was to get the powder was absent. The stranger turned to
the little boy and asked him where was so-and-so, and, as
he could not answer he sent him away to buy a light
and a halfpennyworth of lucifers. The boy went and
returned, and the unknown lighted the waxlight, took
Monti into the shop, and into a back room, which opened
through another room into a deposit far mason's tools,
lime, mortar, &c. He called aloud for the " old man," and
a voice answered from out the darkness, " I am here ! " in
Romagnol accent, and, turning the slide of a dark lan-
tern, he appeared before them.
On being asked for the barrels,he spewed them all ready,
observing that one was full and the other only a quarter
so. The unknown then hastened the old man, made him
open a side door, which led through a court and a corridor
unto the Nicol() della Campanella, exactly where the
cab was standing. The soldiers were called at once, and
the barrels Tdaced one inside the cab and the other beside
the driver, after which the unknown gave Monti three
pounds of loose powder in a handkerchief to spread on the
j sheet of tin Ansiglioni had given him, and left.
The four companions then drove towards Serristori,
stopping the cab on the Piazza Scossacavalli. where Monti
got down from the carriage, and gave the driver a scudi
in payment, telling him to drive the others as close as pos-
sible to the barrack door, which he did very unwillingly,
as he appears to have suspected mischief. Peppe,
the locksmith, opened the door, with the false key fur-
' nished by Gaetano Tognetti, with great rapidity
; and dexterity, and the pretended soldiers carried the
barrels in at once, without exciting the slightest suspicion,
and the carriage drove off. They then called Monti, who
waswaiting on the Piazza Scossacavalli, and told him all
was ready,and that the rest remained for him to do. He

asked if the tin sheet had been pit in, and found that it
bad teen forgotten in the carriage. Peppe started in
chase, but did not succeed in catcling it. It then became
nenesssaiy io provide a substitute, and fresh lengths of
tow. The first was supplied bya long tile, of which a
quantity were lying about, and a fresh piece of tin tack
being prepared, Monti prepared for the last desperate act.
He became aware then, for the first time, that the same
four unknown men, carefully disguised, had taken up
their places at the c'hemist's shop on the Piazza, and were
evidently sent to spy his movements and avenge his
weakness. This decided him, and he started for the bar-
racks, which lie close behind the Piazza. He entered the
magazine, closed the door behind him, spread the powder,
and by the pale light of a single heifer match, groped his,
way to the place where the barrels had been laid, attached
the linstock, weighting it with a stone that it might not
be blown away by the wind. Hedragged the ammunition
stores into close proximity with the barrels, and then ap-
plied a light to the linstock and fired the train, rushing
from the building, and closing the door after him.
On reaching the Piazza Scosscavalli he paid each of the
men ten scudi, and, walking on by himself, he had only
reached the Borgo Vecchio when the awful explosion took
place. He looked at his watch, and it was exactly seven,
the train having taken five minutes before reaching the
powder.
He went back to Ansiglioni, but could not find him, and
wentto seek him at his other hcuse in the Rotonda, but
no one could give any account of him. About half-past
two Ansiglioni returned, pale and frightened, and asked
for wine. On being asked how matters were going, he
said, " Very well," but without specifying how, and he
went to bed, and slept soundly. In the morning he
called for Monti, and gave him ten scudi (p 2), at which
ridiculously small reward he complained bitterly. A.
number of young Genoese, who had been engaged in con-
flicts with the military, began to arrive, and at a quarter
past ten Barzelli came in, and taking off his hat in a marked
and formal manner, addressed Ansiglioni, saying that the
General Francesco Cucchi desired him in his name to
present his compliments on the happy results of the
Serristori enterprise to him who had directed it, and him
who had executed it. Ansiglinni, on being asked who
had been the principal actor, replied that it was Monti,
on which Barzelli replied, "Bravo, Peppe ! you will have
a great reward for this !" Monti answered by spewing
the ten scudi Ansiglioni had given him, at which Barzelli
made a gesture of surprise and annoyance, and Ansiglioni
interposed, saying he would conic toan understanding with
Cucchi as to the price, but that for the moment he was
short of money.
About half an hour after the house was filled with
strangers, all unknown to Monti, and belonging to all
countries—French, English, German, Italian, and
American—who succeeded each other in rapid interviews
with Ansiglioni the whole morning. Monti dined
with Ansiglioni, who told him he had seen Cucchi, and
that he (Monti) had prepared a happy future for himself,
that he would never need, to wodc, but, noon. -- Ilva like
gentlemen, and want for nothing." He then said that
Cucchi had directed the movement of the previous even-
ing pressed on by Garibaldi, but that the details of the
mines had originated with himself, and that the object was
to destroy, if possible, the foreign troops. and above all
the Zonaves, no idea of mining the barracks occupied by
the Italian troops existing. He said that if the revolt
succeeded, a Provisional Government would be proclaimed
until the arrival of the Royal troops, in order that Rome
might become the capital of Italy. The expenses of the
movement, Ansiglioni said, were furnished by Cucchi, the
Italian Government having, moreover, spent three millions
and a half of francs for the purpose of exciting an internal
revolt.
i%lonti was arrested on the 24th, and finding himself
betrayed and abandoned by the men who had caused his
ruin, confessed the entire affair, as did also Bassi. Their
evidence was amply confirmed by the numerous witnesses
and by the papers which were found a few days after in
the house of Ajani, in Trastemere, which after the dis-
covery of the conspiracy in Trebia Crescenzi became the
headquarters of Cucchi, and hence, on the attack of the
Pontifical troops, he succeeded in escaping with Silvestri,
Perfetti, and Ansiglioni.
Twenty-seven lives were sacrificed in the explosion.
Of these by far the greater number were Romans belonging
to the band of the Zouaves. But for the numbers on
their uniforms they could not have been in most
cases identified, so terribly were they crushed and
mutilated. Ten others, most of whom died a few
days after, were rescued alive, and carried to the hospital
of St. Spirito, and besides them a father, mother, and
child were crushed beneath the ruins, the woman alone
surviving to tell the tale.
The condemnation of Monti and Tognetti to death, of
the rest of their- accomplices to the galleys for life and
lengthened periods, and the executions of the former are
incidents fresh in the memory of all. The originators of
the attempt have succeeded in evading justice, and
Cucchi still sits as deputy for Bergamo in the Italian Par
'lament. .

MISCELUNEOUS NEWS.

life intekestB," and hand them over in trust for tna
Church. The Freeman's Journal of Dublin criti-
cising his plan, looks upon it as " a repetition in
another form of the great blunders of the rent.
charge system."
Another tractate to which 'some attention is called
contains selections from the speeches made during
the general election by the Rev. J. Congreve, rector
of Tooting Graveney. It is the production of a
clergyman who does not see any injustice in Mr.
Gladstone's policy. Explaining his position as
opposed to the great body of his brethren, he says :
4 You will not expect me to speak otherwise than
tenderly of my own order. I have too much esprit
de corps for that; but I must candidly confess
that history tells us the clergy, as a body,
have too often opposed progress, and have ranged
themselves on the side of a retrogressive, stationary,
or obstructive policy. And yet it ought not to be so.
According to my reading of Christianity, every
minister of Christ should be a man of liberal
opinions. His calling- is to further everything
that is for the advancement, the progress, and
the reformation of the human race. Without
presuming to judge others, I feel, for my own
part, that a Christian Minister should be on the
Liberal side, and that when lie is so he is in his
natural and true position." 'The doctrine thus laid
down by Mr. Congre.e, if logically followed to its
end, leads to the conclusion that every man, minister
or not, who is not on the Liberal side is in an unna-
tural position, which begs the question in rather too
obvious a manner.

The Royal Commissioners on the Irish Church
estimated the property of that Church at
£011,840. Colonel Adair, one of the commissioners,
seems to have thought his colleagues' estimate too
low, and in his pamphlet he sets down the value as
£839,045, a difference of about 35 per cent.