The Sun.
London, England, 1859-10-20 00:00:00

GARIBALDI A7' _HONE.
•
The .following interesting lettee from a lady has
been for wardcd to us for publication :
" Bologna, Sept. 24.
"My dearest Brother,--I 'wrote to you last from
Modena, whither, as yen are aware, I accompanied
Colonel I) , his wifei and .my young friend
Teresa Garibaldi (agreeably with her father's kind
invitation) in order to take part in the rendezvous
he had given his family at the beautiful villa which
the Dittatore Parini had placed at his disposal, and
the time I spent with them
,proved so very charming
that 1 almost thiwk an account of my visit would
interest a larger circle of readers than that of a
brother's family.
" The first occurrence was a disappointment. A
despatch had arrived on the day we reached the
villa, which had called the General away to Bologna,
and it was his son Menotti and some officers of
staff who received us and installed us in.our apart-
ments. A couple of days were pleasantly employed
in visiting Modena's grass-grown sheets, in explor-
ing the luxuriant graves of our ducal residence,
and admiring the rich meadows which surrounded
them, the beautiful deer and horses and cattle
which, with their young fawns and colts and calves,
were grazing, frolicking, or reposing there in
happy thoughtlessness.
" But the charm of all this beauty and grandeur
soon vanished, and we began to repine at the long
absence of our illustrious host, when We received a
despatch desiring us at onto to start for Ravenna,
and thus our rather onerous life of contemplation
was suddenly changed to thistle and activity
"Packing our trunks in Shurry, swallowing a
premature dinner, .tuirhastemni to the railway in
time for the last and only train for Bologna were
the work of a very few moments, but, alas ! were
not successful. A broken bridge cost us the loss
of four hours, and we arrived at Bologna just in
time to find neither post horses nor places in the
diligence or any other conveyance that day. A
vetturina the following morning was our sole con-
solation, and we were obliged to sleep where we
were.

"Eleven weary hours on a supremely monoto-
nous road brought us next morning to the gates of
the far-famed and interesting town of Ravenna. A
rumour that the 'famitylia del erode Generale' was
to arrive seemed to have preceded us, for already
in the suburbs numberless people hurried to their
windows to catch a glimpse of the fair Teresa and
her herculean brother. When at last our poor vet-
turino horses plucked up the very best of their
sinking strength, and made a showy dash ir.to the
Piazza del Palazzo, and entered with a loud rattle
its lofty archway, a dense crowd surrounded the
carriage. The General met us at the foot of the
staircase, and, after an affectionate welcome, led us
to our rooms. I was happy to see how well he
looked. Every vestige of his late severe illness
had disappeared from his noble brow, and the halo
of satisfaction which his newly gained successes, and
the dawning happiness of his beloved country, dis-
played around, his classical features, heightened, if
possible, their beauty, and made him look 10 years
younger than when I saw hint at Turin.
" Having shaken off the thickest of the dust we
had collected on cur long journey, we were sum-
moned to dinner. In passing through a vast suite
of costly-decorated rooms the General presented us
to several of the first gentlemen of Ravenna, and to
his Excellency the Marchese Rosa from Turin, who
has been sent by the Piedmontese Government as
Intendente and Delegato Politico at Ravenna. He
received us with so much courteous cordiality and
unaffected affability that I cannot tell you how
much pleasure his acquaintance afforded us all.
"We had scarcely been half an hour at table
when the eveivas' of the assembled populace be-
came so clamorous that the Marchese induced Gari-
baldi to gratify them by appearing in the balcony.
All the shouts you hear,' he said to the General,
gush from warm hearts. They are a brave people,
and they cannot feign, and what they demonstrate
they feel ;' and this he repeated more than once
before he could overcome the General's modesty.
At the balcony he pronounced one of his short but
pity speeches, which find their way straight to the
heart. You will possibly have read it in the papers,
and therefore I will not give it here. Not the
slightest noise was to be heard over the large space
where the sonorous voice resounded, as he thanked
the people for all their proofs of sympathy and
affection: The wind was lulled, the flags hung
downwards, and the auditors seemed scarcely to
breathe, for fear of interrupting the solemn silence.
One must have.. followed as I have done the life of
the noble warrior in all its vicissitudes, self-denials,
and sacrifices, one must know, as I do, what great
virtues adorn his private character, and what a
generous part the brave Romagnoli have played in
the most stormy period of his adventurous career,
to be able to judge of the feelings which overcame
me while, by his side, I witnessed the moving spec-
tacle of that memorable evening. As soon as the
General had spoken and permitted the first frantic
outbreak of enthusiasm to subside, he retired from
the window, but Madame D-- and Teresa and I,
to whom such a scene was not so every day an
occurrence as to him who caused it, did not leave
the balcony so soon. The whole Piazza was in a
blaze of illumination ; the ever-changing effect of
light produced by the flaming torches on the tri-
coloured banners, as on different processions that
passed through the thro-Aging multitude—the mili-
tary band of joyful music which now and then was
actually overpowered by the clamorous evvivas and
newly-invented endearing epithets for l'a»zato
figlio del popolo,' and over all the deep blue sky,
with its myriads of stars, whose peaceful twinkling
seemed to sanctify-the ovations devoted to the illus-
trious champion of Italy's liberty—was not all this
really edifying, and the thought that it was a
justly merited tribute to virtue, personal valour,
and magnanimity—was it not eno igh to move the
most indifferent spectators ?
" Ravenna, anciently the capital of the Western
Empire, the residence of the Gothic and Longobar-
die kings, the metropolis of the Greek exarchs, is
one of those cities whose monuments illustrate their
history. It has churches, palaces, museums, and
mausoleums, such as no other city but Rome can
boast of. 11, ithin its walls repose the remains of
the children of Theodosius, and among the tombs of
exarchs and patriarchs rests all that was mortal of
Dante. But, now, this city of old renown, once
in the Adrian Sea,' would have merely to lament
over the decay of its former magnificence, had not
nature gifted it with a gem whose majestic gran-
deur will outlive every human monument. Who
has not heard of Ravenna's far famed Pineta ?' Is
it not Italy's most ancient and, in classical and
poetic respects, most renowned forest? Its praises
have been chanted by Dante and Boccaccio, and
echoed in song by Dryden and Byron. It supplied
Rome with timber for her ships, and the banner of
Venice, in the time of her supremacy, floated from
the masts it furnished.
" This memorable forest may 113 NV add to its
classical annals the most touching drama of modern
times, for it was there that in 1849, on his retreat
from Rome, the magnanimous Garibaldi sought re-
fuge from Austrian pursuit. It was in this laby-
rinth of underwood that for many days the proscript
hero wandered from farm to farm, from hut to hut,
from thicket to thicket, sometimes separated only
by a providential bush from a detachment of infu-
riated Croats. And it was here, alas ! that the sad-
' dest event of his life occurred, the loss of his
adored Anita ; though, on the other hand, it was
here, also, that he learned to know what heroic sa-
crifices and what deep devotion the uncorrupted
and incorruptible Romagnoli are capable.
" A visit to the Pincta being partof the General's
plan for our amusement, it was on a fine morning
at 8 o'clock that we started on our tour. The Gene-
ral, Madame D—, Teresa, and I were in the first
carriage, and the rest of the party followed in ano-
ther carriage, and three biroceini, as guides through
the most difficult passes of the wood, closed the
little train. The biroceino' is a two-wheeled car-
riage, with one horse, peculiar to the Romagna, an d
.t
the quickness with which they can be d e
riven gui
wonderful. The weather was beautiful; amild
autumnal breeze tempered the heat of the sun ; our
horses set off at a brisk pace, and in less thana
quarter of an hour we reached the skirts of the
.
It
c
forest.covering a flat, sandy tract, which varies in breadth
for thirty-five
eeninds lonileasngorttrwaslii.dosreforfontlhe itAad,:ie.ilaint
creeping
, ittter-
mingled with thickets, over. which. plants
1,111.1 a ne
s
endless
suebetweencessi onn e.
of
lovely
vt
lrye e
gladesm miles. It formsaln.td a
of every' kind display their luxuriant flowers and
Wild cherry, apple and pear trees,
ilaipdeenbeNJtileis.fruit, festoons of wild vines bending
under the weight of their grapes, shrubs of bar-
berry, blackberry, and dog rose ; in short, every-
thing seems to be assembled here to do homage to
the king of the forest, the lofty pine, which rises
above in majestic grandeur, holding out its grace-
ful blanches and offering to the 'winged inhabitants
of this fine solitude the safest of haunts, and to the
ellvl
eurt-ec
hwaint hg
iantgl meiffreact itos no,r‘se lightbehuelpdo
nw
thei t h
tdeopl isghotf
Italians a iich store of pignoli!
the
the trees, and on the velvety turf over which we
were silently gliding. What could be more inte-