Evening star., 1923-06-29
BY THE MARaUIsE DE FoNTENoY

Premier Mussolini, the masterful die
tator OF Italy. has been pictured SO
frequently as the son of a village
blacksmith and as having spent his
sarly youth as an apprentice to his
fathers calling, that 1t will doubtless
come as a surprise to many that he
should have written historical
novel some thirteen years ago, which
was published serially in the Pop
olo. a daily newspaper of Trent.
then edited by Cesare Battisti, the
Italian patriot. who was hanged by
the Austrians in the early stages of
the great war.
The novel has some analogy with
D'Annunzio's Nave" 1t deals with
the infatuatlon Of Don Emanuele
Mandruzzo, Prince Bishop of Trent,
for the beautiful black-eyed witch,
completely under her sway and be-
comes the real ruler of the state.
Ciaudia's many acts of wicked cruelty
find their climax at last in her put
ting to death of an innocent girl.
Filiberta Mandruzzo, who had given
in revolt and stormed her palace, but
were beaten off. They vowed. how
ever. never to rest until Filiberta
had been avenged. After various at
through a cup of poisoned wine. con-
sumed by Claudia at a state banquet.
The prince bishop ordered magnifi-
cent funeral and popular mourning
for her. but the inhabitants of Trent
shut themselves UP in their houses
Campo Santo through completely de-
serted streets.
The novel, which contains much
action. is being adapted by one of
the leading cinema concerns for a
movie play, and all the pecuniary
right. in connection Herewith have
been assigned by Prime Minister
Mussolini to the family of Cesare
Battisti, who is still regarded
throughout Italy, and especially in
her northern provinces. as a martyr
to the national cause.
In this way Mussolini is sharing
the literary honors of old Georges
Ciemenceau, whose virtual Dictator
shin of France in the last two years
of the war enabled her to achieve
victory. Clemenceau's novel about
the blind Chinese s,. r,xhi ana tSsn
is so dismayed by what he sees that
he asks the gods to make him blind
once more, is now being prepared
under his personal supervision In
Paris for production on on nne,a the movie
lord Beaconsfield is another pre-
mier who achieved fame as writer
OF fiction. But until now the world
has not been accustomed to look
upon Mussolini in the light OF a nov
elist or a playwright.
Aylmer's new lord, who has just
aucceeded to the 200-year-old peerage
and the Charles II baronetcy Of his
octogenarian father, SO long the in
I spector general of the Canadian
militia. is. like him, Canadian born.
and makes his home at Queens bay,
Kootenay. British Columbia, where he
| in vice president of the Kootenay Gold
Mines Company, and owns some
40 900 acres. Some forty-three years
of age, he IL still unmarried, fought
tinrent in France, but Is an engineer
by profession, unlike his aged father,
who was first and foremost q soldier
and at one time commanded the 11th
Hussars, of which he was honorary
| colonel up to the time of his death.
The Aylmer family is an old Irish
one. hailing from County Kildare, and
| the branch of which Lord Aylmer Is
| the chief has been settled in Canada
| ever since the American war OF In
dependence. The fifth lord. also q
| general in the army. was governor
l General Of Canada. 1t was his sister
| the Hon. Rose Whitworth Aylmeri
| who was the subject and the inspira-
ton Of Walter Savage Landor's beau
j tiful poem beginning What Avails
the Sceptered Race" The sixth Lord