The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1878-08-16
~ CAPT. de RUDIO.
The Remarkable Adventures OF Re
markabie Man.

published this year, is one that has for
some time past been looked forward to
with unusual interest in certain circles,
not merely for the stirring incidents and
the remarkable personal adventures
which II is to commemorate, but for the
light which il is expected to throw upon
some highly important yet comparatively
little known episodes IN the ponticai
history of modern Europe. The book
referred to is the autobiography OF
Cant. Carlo de Rndio, an italian OF noble
birth. but an American citizen by adop-
ton. and at present an officer In our
regular army.
The hackneyed saying that truth is
often stranger than fiction seems to us
to be corroborated anew by this autobl-
opraphy. It is story which reads more
like chapter from Dumas 1rOis Nus
ouefairs than the sober record of nine
teenth century life. Though desce nded
from one of the Oldest Venetian families
and educated in military academy, the
Youthful Carlo early imbibed from his
excellent father, Count Hercules de
Rudio. fervid love for his native land
and mortal hatred for all tyrants. The
youth grew upin those days when an Aus
trian Governor of Venice actually dared
to boast that no arms would be needed
against the native cowarCs-that the stick
would be enough to keep them in sublec-
ton. The resettlement OF Europe, which
followed the close of the Napoleonic wars,
had placed the whole of Italy into the
hands of Austria, whose imperial dy-
70 lnc
which it did not directly govern. The
consequences of this foreign occupation
were such as might be expected. The
people conspjred, or rose In lnsurrec-
ton, only to provoke the Austrian Gov
eminent to adopt more vigorous meas
ures of repression and to inauRurate
perfect reign of terror in the land. The
prisons and the galleys were crowded
with political martyrs. Many patriots
died on the scafold, or languished in
dungeons or in exile. The sufferings OF
his unhappy countrymen produced a
profound impression on the mind OF
young Rudio, and shaped his whole at
ter-life. The work TO which he thence
forth devoted himself with all the en-
thusiasm of his energetic nature was the
liberation and independence of Italy.
He Joined heart and soul the GiOvani
Italia that secret revolutionary or
ganization which did so much to
keep alive the sacred fires of
patriotism, and was soon honored
with the confidence of its lead
ers. In spite of his youth, he grew to
be a great favorite with Giuseppe MAJ
zini, who placed the most implicit re-
lance upon his abilities, zeal and cour
age. So frequently did the great liber-
ator employ him on important missions,
that the Austrian authorities finally set
price OH his capture, living or dead.
Indeed, from the day of the great Ital-
ian revolution, of which the Venetian
struggle under Mazzini was a superb
episode, until his final departure for
England, there was no enterprise, how
ever desperate, no rising or conspiracy,
in which the youngpatriot was not either
directly or indirectly concerned. He
seemed to bear a charmed life and posi-
lively to court danger. When it was at
last discovered that italy could not cope
with the organized despotism of the
Hapsburgs unless aided 10y some great
power, when all the efforts of Mazzinl
had ended in failure, and the great wave
of reaction had swept the whole of contin-
entail Europe, De Rudio went TO Lon
don, then the refuge of political exiles
of all nationalities.
1t was in London where the young
Italian patriot renewed his acquaintance
with Felia Orsini, fellow exile, who
conided to him the outlines of the plot
against the life of Louis Napoleon
Regarded by the Italian liberals as a
perjured wretch, traitor, not only to
the GiOUani Italia, but to the cause of
freedom everywhere, who richly de-
served death, De Rudio had no hesita-
ton to join the conspiracy against the
author of the December massacre
Nothing could be more intensely inter-
esting than this portion of the autobi-
ography. The Opera House, the Rue
the conspirators' watching
the imperial carriage approaching from
the boulevard, its arrival at the foot of
the grand stairway, the explosion of the
first hand grenade. the extinction of the
gas lights by the conclusion of the air,
the sudden change from the brilliantly
illuminated scene to the darkness, the
Il1BuO VI tuc ptulC-sbrlcheu lduceIs, Tie
plunging horses and frightened crowd,
the cries of the wounded and
groans of the dying-all these are
described with realism which
brings the whole scene wildly before
the reader. We almost fancy ourselves
to see De Rudio, as he crawls over the
bodies of men and horses toward the
wreck of the imperial carriage and tries
to peer into it, He had thrown the sec
ond grenade right under the front wheels
of the carriage, had seen it kill the
coachman and the horses and tear out a
whole side of the carriage, but was un-
certain whether the tyrant himself had
been killed. This doubt he meant to
solve with his stiletto and revolver, and,
if necessary, complete what the grenade
had left unfinished. Equally graphic
and Astounding in dramatic situations is
the arrest of the conspirators, their ex-
animation before the Judge d. Instruc-
ton, the dungeons and the guards of
the prisons of Mazzas and La Roquette,
the trial, the speech OF the Procureur
General, the arguments of the counsel
for the defense (among whom are Jules
Favre and the flower of the French
bari, the finding of the jury, the SEN