Daily evening star. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1852-1854, 1853-08-26
DAILY EVENING STAR.
The Musician and his Mistress.


MUS. While yet young man, and hay
ing acquired great reputation at Venice,
he was employed by nobleman of that
city to give instruction in music to a
young lady of noble birth named Hor-
tensia. She had been seduced from her
family by this nobleman, with whom she
was living, when Stradella was intro
duced to her acquaintance. She was
beautiful and accomplished and, not
withstanding her unhappy fall from vir-
tue. must have possessed estimable as
well as amiable qualities. A mutual
passion sprung up in tie minds of the
instructor and his pupil, and they agreed
to fly together from the house of her Sc
Queer The enraged Italian, on discover
ing their flight, determined that nothing
but their death should satisfy his VEN
geance: and hired two braves with in
structions to follow them and execute his
purpose, wherever they should be found.
They proceeded to Naples, the birthplace
of Stradella, surprising he would most
probably return thither.
After a vain search, however, in that
city, they learned that he and the lady
were living at Rome, where she was re-
garded as his wife. They applied to their
employer for a recommendation to the
Venetian ambassador ;at Rome, in order
that they might find an asylum when the
deed was perpetrated; and thus provided
they arrived at that city. They soon dis
covered the residence of Stradella but
hearing that an oratorio of his compost
ton was to be performed in one of the
churches, in which he was himself to sing,
they determined to waylay and murder
him on his return home, in the darkness
of the night. They entered the church
while Stradella was singing and such
was the exquisite beauty and pathos of
his music, that these savases were melted
by it : and they could not bear to take
the life of man who had procured them
such sweet and unwonted emotions. They
waited for him in the street: but instead
of plunging their poniards in his heart,
informed him that such had, indeed, been
their purpose, which they now detested:
and warned him to fly with his mistress
to some place of greater safety. for that
the revenge of their enemy would soon
reach them there. The lovers Immediate
lv FASTENED from Rome, and took up their
abode at Turin. The braves returning
to their employer, told him that they had
traced the fugitives to Turin but that,
as the laws were exceedingly severe in
that place, and the chance of escape after
the commission of such deed very diff
cult, they would have no further concern
in the matter. The Venetian, however,
was determined to persist in his bloody
purpose, and therefore engaged two other
assasins on whom he could place more re-
lance, procuring for them letters of rec
omendation from the French ambassador
at Venice to the ambassador of the same
country at Turin, in the character Of two
merchants who were led by their COM
mercial pursuits to that place. The muir
derers delivered their credentials, and re-
manned in the city, waiting for favora-
bic opportunity.
In the meantime, the Duchess of Savoy
then regent of the kingdom, having been
informed of the story of the lovers, placed
Hortensia in convent, and retained
Stradella in her service, giving him a res
idence in the palace. After some time
Stradella's fears for his safety began to
abate; and one evening, having ventured
to walk on the ramparts of the town, he
was attacked by two ruffians who each
stabbed him with dagger, and fled to
the house of the French ambassador, as a
sanctuary. The news of this assault
Immediately reached the duchess, who
ordered the gates to be shut, and demand
ed the assassins of the French ambassador
who refused to give them up. Stradella s
wounds however, proved net to be NOR
tai; and the murderers were allowed to
escape, in order to put an end to the dis
cussion as to their delivery to Justice.
The prosecutor of this hapless pair still
retained his thoughts of revenge, and
continued to have them constantly watch
ed by spies whom he kept at Turin.
A year elapsed after Stradella's cure
was completed; and no renewal of any
attempt having been made, he began to
think himself in safety. The Duchess
of Savoy, deeply interested in the fate of
the lovers, had them married in her palace,
and the prospect of happiness was now
before them. 1t was a deceitful pros
pect. Stradella, having to compose all
opera for Genoa, went to that city, carry
ing his wife with him. The Venetian, in
formed by his spies of this movement,
and finding that his victims were no lon
ger under the protection of the Duchess
of Savoy, dispatched murderers, who,
watching for an opportunity, rushed into
their chamber early one morning; and
stabbed them to the heart in each Others
arm. The murderers effected their es-
cape, and were never more heard of.
Of this strange and melancholy story,
in all its particulars, there seems to be
no doubt. All the writers who relate the
IL. L. Il