The Warwickshire Herald. — 1887-09-15 (Birmingham, West Midlands, England)

REMARKABLE STORY.  AMERICAN papers report the death in a hospital in Philadelphia of a man whose name, some thirty years ago, was very well known in Northern Italy —Antonio earns. the assassin of Coarles IIL, Duke of Parma, in 1854. The Duke was welcomed by his people on coming to his throne a few years before, in succession to the Archduchess Maria Louisa, widow of the Emperor Napoleon I,; but he quickly became detes,ed on account of his arbitrary government, and still more because of the profligacy of his private life. He was married to a most amiable princess, a sister of the Comte of Chambord, but his licmtious conduct earned for him the bitter hatred of men of all classes within I his Duchy. A soft of association of vengeance had been formed against him; at the same time he was marked out for death by the Gtovane Italia." But the Duke was brave and fearless, and although he knew well his life was in danger, he despised the , men he had so deeply injured too much to take any I precautions. Antonio Carra, a saddler by trade, was engaged to be married to a cigar-maker of wonderful beauty. The Duke heard of this girl, land soon boasted that he had supplanted the saddler. The local committee of the G,ovane Italia," met on March 25 to consider how, when, and by whom "justice" should be executed on Duke Charles for his oppressive political conduct. Antonio Carra presented himself to the committee, and claimed the right of assassinating the Duke. explaining that he would do the deed with an awl as the weapon with which he was best acquantei. Many of those present protested against transforming an act of political " jusiice" into a deed of private personal vengeance. But the majority accepted the proposal of Carra, who, the next evening, scabbed tne Duke with a large awl in the breast as he was entering his palace after his afternoon walk. The assassin fled, climbed over the city wall at a lonely spot, then went around and presented himself at the gate of St. Barbara, and after much entreaty was allowed to enter. He gave some money to the warder to get a drink of wine, and during his absence put on the hands of the clock at the gate-house by an hour. The Duke never recovered consc ousness after he was stabbed, and di •d within an hour; but the death was kept secret till next day, in order to allow time to the Ministers to secure the succession of the Duchess as Regent for her young son. Carra was arrested and tried, but the positiv • evidence of the gate-warder procured his acquittal. He went to America and settled in Philadelphia; but Italians kept aloof from the man whom they regardea as a private murderer, not as a political assassin. In 1861 he returned to Parma, where he expected to be received with open arms as one of the " victims of tyranny" who had suffered the most shameful wrong. But his old friends of the " Giovane Italia" were unwilling to acknowledge that he bad any claims upon them. Deeply disappointed, he returned to Philadelphia, where he was known as an industrious and intelligent but unlucky workman. His name and story were forgotten until the announcement a couple of weeks ago of his death in a hospital.