The herald., 1898-09-04

| mysterious mountain ana tnlS ancient
and valiant race Of men, taking care
at the same time to clothe my en-
quiries in such garb as to awaken I.o
suspicion in his mind that I was not
the real, simon-pure Timoteo.
l will here set down as plainly and
as briefly as possible. the results of my
important details, l managed to make
myself reasonably conversant with the
history and appearance OF the country
and with the customs. peculiarities and
occupations of its people.
Upon the arrival of Father Sylvester.
withdrew with Clan Jacopo into the
garden, taking the casket with me, and
there, under the shade Of a gigantic
olive tree, put to the trusty hench-
man such questions as might enlighten
me further upon the subject of this
examination of the Chronicles and of
my conference with Clan Jacopo. the
same being the story Of Firenzalino and
its people, or as much of it as 1t is
necessary for you to know.
From the middle of the thirteenth to
the end of the fifteenth century many
people were eXiled from the great and
glorious city of Florence; some for
crimes, and the most of them for differ
ent political reasons. Among these were
the great family of PaZzi, exiied for
completely in the murder Of Giuliano
de- Medici, and another great family,
the Albizzi, exiled by their enemy Co
simo when he got the upper hand of
them.
Well, in time, perhaps along toward
the middle of the fifteenth century,
great number of these exiles and de-
scendants of exiles, after wandering
about Italy for many years and trying
without avail to get back into their
beloved city, took up their abode upon
barren island in the midst of a lake,
which lay some thirty or forty miles to
the north of Florence in the very heart
Of the Apennines. Upon this wild and
desolate spot, which nevertheless was
almost within sight of their native land,
they fortified themselves and they sent
for their possessions, cultivated the ISL
and and worked at their several handi-
crafts. Eventually they prospered and
increased in numbers and made some
thing of a place of it.
And it was in the summer of the me-
morable year of 1892, the year of the
discovery of America by Columbus, Of
the death of Lorenzo de- Medici, of the
fall of Grenada, and of the expulsion
Of the Jews from Spain, when there
came up one night a great storm, fol-
lowed by a dire earthquake. which so
shook the island that all the exiles
rocked back and forth in their beds, as
though they had been in so many boats
on a rough sea. And when they got
up and went out in the morning and
took look around, 10 and behold! their
island had shot up, with the earth
quake, twelve or thirteen hundred feet
out of the lake. and they beheld them
selves high and dry upon the top of a
mountain, whose sides We're so precipit-
Gus and smooth. that he who should
attempt to descend them would face
certain death. They were, in fact, as
completely separated from the rest of
the earth as though they had been
suddenly translated to another planet.
They had a small world completely and
ncontestably their own; and here, at
the time when I made my ascension,
they had been living and dying, and
marrying and giving in marriage, and
working at their businesses and fight
ing and making peace, and what not,
for more than four hundred years.
have thus shown the origin Of the coun-
try and of it's people, and have account
ed for the exalted position in which 1t
existed.
A few words will suffice TO give the
history of this singular community
which, from the very first, was called
by the inhabitants, Little Florence or
Firenzalino.
AS l said before, the whole top of the
mountain was only about six miles
long by four miles wide. EDITORS note:
Mr.. Lawrence first spoke Of it as being
but five miles long by three miles
wide] It therefore contained an area
Of not more than fifteen thousand
acres, arabic land, forest. rocks
streams and ponds all combined, and
, would not at the most support popu-
lation of more than ten thousand souls
/ The number of persons upon the island
at the time of the earthquake in 1892
was something less than a thousand
and, by the natural law Of increase
, in the course of a century or 80, it wa:
fair to suppose that the population
should have passed the supporting linn
| 1t Of the land. Such, however, had MOI
been the case. At the time of my ar
) rival, Firenzalino contained little les'
than ten thousand inhabftants; O
whom eight thousand dwelt In wei
, built, walled city, which stood ct tn