The Sun. — 1861-03-02 (London, England)

PAPAL ATROCITIES AT COL LALI'O.  A letter from Rieti to the Nazione gives the following account of the atrocities committed by Papal brigands at Collalto, announced in a telegram a iew days ago :  The small castle of Collalto, situated in the neighbourhood of Rieti, on the frontier of the Papal territory, hitherto celebrated in Italian history, will remain a perpetual monument of the tyranny of Cardinal Antonelli. The strong position of the castle, built by the Barberini, and its solid enclosure, enabled the inhabitants, not numerous, to defend the approach to it against the hordes of brigands who on the 13th of February attacked it on all sides. Valiantly repulsed from the first, they renewed their attack with greater fierceness, and it was not till after three hours of a heroic defence, that the poor inhabitants of Collalto were forced to yield, for the succour sent them from the neighbouring parts could not approach the castle, and their ammunition was entirely expended. Then the victors, numbering more than 1,500 men, the scum of civilised nations, entertained by the Papal Government, entered Collalto in triumph with mules and horses, that they might carry off and secure their booty. Cullalto, a commune containing upwards of 700 inhabitants, was given up to general pillage. Not a house was spared ; the doors were every where smashed, the windows broken, the cottages of the peasants set on fire, the barns burned, so that nothing was wanting to complete this terrible scene. Bartolomeo Latini, the savant and physician, endeavoured to return to his house, but was recognised and arrested by a brigadier of the Pontifical gendarmerie, then barbarously pierced with the bayonet. The sister of the unhappy doctor, having run up to help her brother, was also wounded with the bayonet and pistol; the syndic was left dying ; the doorkeeper of the Imperi family was bat barously murdered, together with his wife ; a child only twenty months old was spitted by a bayonet, and so carried through the streets in sign of triumph. The arch-priest Latini was stripped of his priestly garments and clothed in the uniform of a soldier, that he might serve as a laughing-stock, and thus he was led amidst insults and sarcasms into the castle, where he is at this moment kept close as a hostage. One of his brothers has become insane in consequence of all these family misfortunes. Now, these wretches have walled up the gates of the castle proper, and received reinforcements from Piozzio Giriolfo, both arms, ammunition, and soldiers, and here they stay, having fortified themselves with barricades. They have captured some twenty of the richest young men in the country, and under the pretence of legality they have instituted a council of war, that passes sentences. Bernardino and Giuseppe Mari, brother of the unfortunate captain miserably assassinated by the reactionaries at Carsoli, have ransomed their lives by a promise to pay the brigands 4,000 ducats, half of which they have already given. How many families have been reduced to the most abject beggary ! On the 14th, while they were fortifying themselves at Collalto, a handful of these banditti invaded Petercia, which they abandoned in the night, after completely pillaging and disarming the inhabitants.