The Shasta courier., 1862-09-06
A Legend OF Florence.

There is street in Florence called the Via
della Marte, 1.-THE street of the dead a name
derived from a remarkable circumstance
Antonia Rondinelli, young Florentine. in
the mi Idle rank Of life, fell passicnately in
love with Ginevra Armeri, . beautiful young
woman of the same station. The lover could
not, by any entreaties or concessions, obtain
her from her father, who chose rather to
give her TO francesca Angalenti, youth of
a distinguished and noble family. 1t would
be vain to- attempt describing the agony of
the real lover on receiving this intelligence !;
nor was Ginevra the less afflicted, her heart
being wholly devoted to Rondinelli. Now,
whether it arose from the struggles of dis
appointed affection, or from any physical
cause, the effect was that, four years after
this unhappy union, she fell ILL., Remain
ing without pulse, and finally giving no ex-
ternal signs of life, she was considered dead !;
and accordingly was deposited in the family
vault under the Duomo, and close to the
Campanile. The tomb is still shown in our
time. 1t is narrated, by Leopold del Mey-
lione, that when the fossus was epaired, and
this vault passed into the family of Riacci,
the letters G. and A., the initials of the
Ginevra Arneri, were engraved upon it, be-
ing a confirmation of the truth of the story
The death of Ginevra was not real, bn.
one of those protracted swoons which the
faculty are unable to explain. On the night
following her dreadful Incarceration, the un-
happy Ginevra. on regaining her senses, be-
came aware of her situation. Recovering,
by degrees a little strength, increased by
her despair and horror, she succeeded in
and feet. Lighted by a ray of the moon,
which cleaned through the door of the vault,
she crept towards it, feebly ascended the
stairs and gained the outer air. Taking
the shortest paths, she passed the street then
called the M;servcordia, but ever afterwards,
from the circumstance, the Via della Morte.
Knocking at the door of her husbands house,
she claimed admittance; but he, scared by
sepulchral costume, and hollow, yet faint
voice, believing her also to be the ghost of
his wife, refused entrance to her while hasti.
ly closing his easement. Thds repulsed, she
continued to crawl along to the house of her
father adjoining, Bernado Aren't, from whom
she encountered the same cruel reIulse, as
also from an uncle in the Mercato Vecchio.-
Abandonded thus to her unhappy fate,
she resolved, ere lying down to die, to essay
the affections of her former lover, from whom
she had received so many remembered pledg
es of love and faithfulness. Faithful still to
first and only love. after his horror was "ver-
come, he comforted, assisted, restored to
health, and married her. The chronicle fur
ther says that his marriage being deemed
invalid by her formor husband and family
the case was tried by the magistrates of Flor
ence, who, strangely enough, gave it in fs
vor of the second husband and not on the
plea of Ginevra's having been inferred, but
because all her family had refused to admit
her. To make more clear the truth of her
releas from the tomb, we should state the
custom, that people in those days were not
buried in coins, but in sacks, tied up at the
pooly opd foot