The Sun. — 1827-04-11 (London, England)

ITALIAN LOVERS.  A letter from Milan, gives the following account of a double suicide, which has recently taken place in that city. The circumstance has created a very deep and general sensation in a country where selfdestruction is of very rare occurrence. Marco Uronn, a shopkeeper of Milan, married his daughter, Laodina, about three years ago, to a young man named Teranza, who was his ward, and who was, like himself, engaged in trade. Laodina brought her husband two children; she was equally remark.. able in the neighbourhooc for her modesty and piety as for her beauty. In crossing the Piazza del Duomo she was pointed out to me as one of the prettiest of the rich shopkeeper's wives who still persevered in the old custom of passing a part of the day behind their counters. I never afterwards failed, when in that neighbourhood, to stop before the shop-wins dows, and endeavour to catch, through the shawls and muslins exposed in them, a glimpse of her charming face. Laodina was of middle stature, had fair hair, a mild and downcast eye, and an extremely pale complexion; her features wore a mingled expression of tenderness and seriousness. About six months. ago, her husband began first to suspect that she edtertained a passion for a young shopkeeper named Valterna, whom she had known for a long time. Fired with jealousy, Teranza not only forbid Valterna his house, but caused him to bo severely cudgelled by two Buli or hired bravoes, and some time after applied to the police to prohibit Valterna from passing before hit windows. On the 18th January, Laodina went to the theatre de la Canobiano—the performance was Paolo e Virginia—her lover was in the pit, and kept his eyes constantly fixed on her. Laodina appeared to be gayer than usual; but it was remarked by one of the persons with her, that at a certain part of the performance, she said, as if to herself, and in a tone of melancholy foreboding, " Ah, such is the fate of all true lovers." Laodine had that morning sent her children to pass some time with her mother. On returning borne towards midnight, she handed her husband a glass of agro di cedro (a kind of lemonade), in which it would appear she had put a little opium, and took another herself, in which there was poison. Laodina and her husband retired to bed; and it seems as soon as she perceived that he was asleep, she arose, quitted the room, which she locked upon him, and admitted her lover, with whom she shut herself in another apartment. About throe o'clock in the morning, some of the neighbours were awakened by the report of pistols, but hearing no further noise, they paid no more attention to the circumstance. The next morning, the young man who opened the shop, surprised at not seeing Te;anzu appear, at half-past ten o'clock went to his room, and after knocking for a considerable time, succeeded in awaking him. Transported with jealousy at not finding his wife by his side he burst open the door of his room, and finding the door of the other room locked on the inside, he also broke into it, and to his inexpressible horror saw his wife and her lover lying dead close by each other. They had provided themselves with two pair of pistols, but had made use only of one. Laodina was but little disfigured by the explosion ; she seemed to have placed the muzzle of the pistol as far back in her mouth as possible. She wore suspended roiled her neck her lover's portrait, and had on her fingers the rings he had given her ; she held in her left hand a second pistol, loaded and cocked. Teranza, without saying a wo.• of the horrible event to any one, closed the door, and went to inform the police. His jealous disposition being well known, he was kept in confinement until the physicians had made their report of the state of the bodies, and the cause of their death. As the German authorities have their Werther by heart, they allowed the two ill-fated lovers to be buried together in the Campo Scelerato. Two nights after, a dirge was played over their graves, whether by Italians or Germans is not known—most likely the latter. It appears by their letters which have been found, that Laodina had remained faithful to her marriage vow, and that it was a struggle between her virtue and her love that forced her to adopt the fatal resolution of putting an end to her existence.— It also appears that Laodina and her lover had determined on self-destruction on the 25th of October ; but several domestic circumstances, amongst others the death of Valterna's father, had retarded its execution until the 18th of January. In many of the letters Valterna endeavoured to persuade his mistress to elope with him, to which she always replied by reproaching him with his want of courage. In one of her letters she says, " Should we fly, poor as we both are, we could not avoid falling into distress, which might lead us to the commission of some more shameful action ;it is better to die." Laodina's letters are said to be admirable; it is probable they will be published."