Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1859-04-21
TEkMS, | $500 at the years. end.
The Neapolitan Exiles.

The Neapolitan Exiles.
oigsmondo Castromekino, Duke of Cabellino,
one OF the Neapolitan exiles who recently land
ed at Queenstown, Ireland, in communication
! 70 the Cork Reporter, gives graphic outline of
1ne Suiierlngs which he and fifty companions en-
aured Tor eight years in the prisons of Naples.
Ihelr experience was indeed one of great mental
ana bodily anguish and the narratives which
they will doubtless give to the world will add
now lniamy to the character of the King of Ma
pies, These and other victims of his cruelty. it
VIII be remembered, were incarcerated for al
iedged political ofenses, of which they were
convicted by perjured witnesses and corrupt
judges The fifty whose prison-history Cas-
tromedino narrates, embraced a number of yerv
eminent citizens, and were gathered from vari-
GUS prisons in 1852, and first thrown into the
stiflng dens of Monte Fusco, the place where
for ages the most desperate bandits of the king
dom were congregated, and only left for the
globet. Here, amid dripping walls and dark
cells, with the freezing winds penetrating
through the broken but stoutly barred windows,
and bound with chains, the victims of TYRANNY
passed the dreary hours. sleeping at night on
the bare earth, They were dressed as malefac-
tors, and deprived of books, and for time even
OF materials for writing to their friends.
When at last they were allowed to write to
their friends. it was only to give an account of
their health. Even this privilege was limited
to five individuals each day, and all letters and
the answers were obliged to be left unsealed
10 crafty the hatred of their jailors, they were
chained to staples in the floor, and their fetters
reduced to the length of four feet, while to
their physical suferings were added the grossest
insults To render their pangs still more acute
and corroding, they were cut off from conversa-
tion with those who had them in charge, even
the sbirri being ordered not to address word
to them, and any one of them who evinced
mercllu disposition Or kindness to the prisoners
was tried by court-martial and Aogged. A
priest who, observing them through the grating
as he was pursuing his sacred duties, pro-
nounced a blessing upon them, was instantly
seized and sent to distant district, where he is
kept under surveillance. The birds of heaven.
even, were not allowed to solace their anguish
by their cheerful notes. A nightingale which
used to come to mulberry tree by the prison
and pour forth his carols, thus imparting pleas
urc to the prisoners, who thronged to the prison
bars to drink in his melody, was regarded by
the suspicious police as means of communica-
ton with the outer world, and shouting and
pelting not causing him to forsake his favorite
haunt, he was shot
In 1855 the authorities bethought themselves
that the number of prisoners, fifty, was dan
gerously large, and in May of that year, thirty
were transferred to Monte Sarchio, to a place
purposely fitted for them In the middle of an
old fortress, from the barred windows of which
they could see only the light of day, and some
mountains in the distance. The apartments,
however, were better aired and more spacious
than in the former prison, and their treatment
was less rigorous but this was but the whiten-
ing of the sepulchre, for lhe same moral degra-
dations, the same priyations, the same espion-
age, and the same suspicious accompanied them.
They Wore distributed into five rooms, and very
closely guarded. Six hours only per day were
allowed for exercise in the prison yard, and the
rooms No matter what their necessities might
be, the door for that period never was opened.
Finally they were allowed to see their families.
but the time allowed for these visits was very
short. The mode in which the interviews were
ordered was this there were two rooms oppo-
site each other, and six PAGES apart at the graf
ing Of which, and so separated, the father saw
his son, the husband his wife, The soldiers,
gendarmcs, turnkeys and agents of the police
were present at the touching scene, and listened
to the ontpourlngs of lacerated hearts. They
stopped their discourse at pleasure, and as they
could not follow the familiar intercourse, would
command them to speak on common topics. A
woman who was compelled to leave her son,
after the interchange of a few words, prayed
that she might at least be allowed to touch
with her finger the hand of her child To pass
it through the grating, she barred her arm,
when the police cried out that it was treachery,
and both mother and son were seized and drag
ged away although if she had been permitted
to try, she could not have reached her sons
hand. A father who came to see two sons, was
incarceratcd for four months, because he made
the visit on day not prescribed by the rules,
The lot of those who remained at Monte Fus-
co was yet more cruel for the cholera swept
nearly all of them off, care and medicine being
in great measure denied them. Those who
were taken to the hospital had chain riveted
to one foot and bolted to the floor ! One re-
ceived reprieye from this barbarous infiction,
but on the morrow it was revoked, the order
saying, " If Mollica is dead, it is we'll if not,
replace the etters'' And this merciess order
was obeyed even while the unhappy man, with
priest at his side, was commencing his soul to
God
Such are some of the hardships to which
these victims of jealous tyrannyswere SUBJECT
cd Is it any wonder that their numbers were
decimated, the vgor of manhood and the hope
of life almost crushed out, and the young made
prematurely old? One of the prisoners, oignor
Sabano, had with him his eight children, two
of them daughters, to encounter the horrors OF
the prison, and two sank under them,
Thedecree for the liberation and banishment
of the prisoners was signed on the 9th OF De-
cember, but was kept from their knowledge un-
I'll the middle of january, when they were sent