Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1905-10-21
A WIDOWS VENDETTA.

- NiCS' ~ GiNC = ~
The widow of Paolo Saverini lived
with her son in a poor little house on
the ramparts of Bonifacio. The town
built on a spur of the mountain, seeming
i'll places to hang suspended over the sea
faced, across a narrow channel that bris-
tied with jagged rocks, the lower coast
of Sardinia AT its feet, cut in the
cliff, like gigantic corridor, leading
between precipitous walls up almost to
the first houses, serves as a port for the
Italian Sandman fishing boats. and twice
month for the wheezy old steamer
from Ajaccio.
On the white mountain side the group
of houses make spot yet mor re white.
They look like the nests CT wild birds,
clinging to the rocks ard locking down
upon the terrible passage where few yes
se!s dare venture The wind cGaselessly
lashes the waves and beats upon the
rocks, which it has stripped of vo.dure.
The patches of white foam above the
black points of innumerable rocks that
pierce the waves everywhere look like
strips of cloth. floating and palpitating
on the surface of the water.
The house of the widow Saverini, set
upon the very edge of the cliff has three
windows that give upon the savage and
desolate scene. She lived there alone,
with her son Antoine ard their dog
Brisk, a big gaunt brute, with long,
shaggy hair which accompanied Antoine
on his hunting trips.
nff IL Ar{
Saverini was killed with trelcherous
knife thrust by Nicolas Ravolati, who
fled that night to Sardinia.
When the old mother received the body
of her son, which some neighbors brought
to her, she did not cry, but remained for
q long time staring at it motionless;
thcn, extending her wrinkled hand above
the corpse, she pledged to it the vendetta
She wanted no neighbors to sit up with
her, and shut herself up with her dead
keeping with her only the dog, which
howled dolefully. Crouched at the foot
of the bed, with its head toward its mas
ter's body and its tail pressed between
its legs, the brute howled long and shrill
while the mother, leaning with fixed gaze
over The corpse, wept silent tears
The young man, lying on his back, his
heavy cloth vest gaping and torn at the
chest, seemed to be sleeping; but he was
covered with blood-on his throat, on his
trousers, on his face, on his hands. Clots
of blood matted his hair and his beard.
The old woman began to speak. At
the sound of her voice the dog was
stilled.
Go, go in peace. You shall be
avenged, my little one, my boy. Sleep,
sleep i'll peace. You shall be avenged,
do you hear? Your mother promises it;
and your mother always keeps her ord,
as YOU well know" And gently she
leaned forward and pressed her cold lips
to the dead face
Then Brisk began to whine with a
monotonous, heart-rending, terrible sound.
They remained thus, the woman and
the dog. until morning
Antoine Saverini was buried the next
day, and soon his name was heard no
more in Bonifacio
He had left neither brothers nor nea,
cousins. No man was there to take up
the vendetta. The mother alone thouoht
of it, day and night.
Across the strait she saw. from morn.
ing to night, white spot on the eoost
1t was little village. Longosardo. where
the Corsican bandits took refuge when
hard pressed They were almost the
only inhabitants OF the hamlet. and there.
i'll sight of their native land, they await
ed the moment when they could return
to Corsica. In this village she knew
Nicolas Ravolati had hidden himself.
! All day long would she sit alone nv
her window, brooding on her vengeance
/ How could she accomplish it. alone. in
! firm. almost ut deaths door? But She
had promised she had sworn on the dead
body. She could not forget. she could
not wait. What should she do? She no
longer slept at night she no longer knew
rest nor respite, she thought ALWAYS.
seeking means. The dog slept at her
feet, now and again raising its head to
howl mournfully. Since its master was
10 longer there, it often howled thus. as
/ if 1t would have called him, as if it's
brute's soul cherished memory that
nothing could efTace.
But one night, as Brisk resumed his
low bowling. the mother had sudden
idea idea of a vindictive and Zero
cious savage She unused over it till
morning; then. rising before dawn. She
hetook herself to the church. She PRAYED.
PROSTATE on The stone flags. implorinn
God to aid her, to sustain her. to give
her poor worn body strength to avenre
her SON
Then she returned. She had in her
yard an old cask with the head Knocked
cut. which served to catch the rain water
nom the caves. She turned it over. emp
tied it, secured it to the ground with