Wanderings in Corsica: Its History and Its Heroes. Vol. 1 of 2
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Title: Wanderings in Corsica: Its History and Its Heroes. Vol. 1 of 2
Author: Ferdinand Gregorovius
Translator: Alexander Muir
Release date: January 22, 2014 [eBook #44727]
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WANDERINGS IN CORSICA: ITS HISTORY AND ITS HEROES. VOL. 1 OF 2 ***
Transcriber's Note:
Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the original document have
been preserved. Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.
Italic text is denoted by _underscores_.
On page 3, Cyrnos is a possible typo for Cyrnus.
CONSTABLE'S MISCELLANY
OF
FOREIGN LITERATURE.
VOL. V.
EDINBURGH: THOMAS CONSTABLE AND CO.
HAMILTON, ADAMS, AND CO., LONDON.
JAMES M'GLASHAN, DUBLIN.
MDCCCLV.
EDINBURGH: T. CONSTABLE, PRINTER TO HER MAJESTY.
[Illustration: ISLAND of CORSICA
Engraved & Printed in Colours by W. & A. K. Johnston, Edinburgh.
Edinburgh, T. Constable & Co.]
WANDERINGS IN CORSICA:
ITS HISTORY AND ITS HEROES.
TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN OF
FERDINAND GREGOROVIUS
BY ALEXANDER MUIR.
VOL. I.
EDINBURGH: THOMAS CONSTABLE AND CO.
HAMILTON, ADAMS, AND CO., LONDON.
JAMES M'GLASHAN, DUBLIN.
MDCCCLV.
PREFACE.
It was in the summer of the past year that I went over to the island
of Corsica. Its unknown solitudes, and the strange stories I had
heard of the country and its inhabitants, tempted me to make the
excursion. But I had no intention of entangling myself so deeply
in its impracticable labyrinths as I actually did. I fared like the
heroes of the fairy-tales, who are allured by a wondrous bird into
some mysterious forest, and follow it ever farther and farther into the
beautiful wilderness. At last I had wandered over most of the island.
The fruit of that summer is the present book, which I now send home
to my friends. May it not meet with an unsympathetic reception! It is
hoped that at least the history of the Corsicans, and their popular
poetry, entitles it to something better.
The history of the Corsicans, all granite like their mountains, and
singularly in harmony with their nature, is in itself an independent
whole; and is therefore capable of being presented, even briefly, with
completeness. It awakens the same interest of which we are sensible in
reading the biography of an unusually organized man, and would possess
valid claims to our attention even though Corsica could not boast
Napoleon as her offspring. But certainly the history of Napoleon's
native country ought to contribute its share of data to an accurate
estimate of his character; and as the great man is to be viewed as a
result of that history, its claims on our careful consideration are the
more authentic.
It is not the object of my book to communicate information in the
sphere of natural science; this is as much beyond its scope as beyond
the abilities of the author. The work has, however, been written with
an earnest purpose.
I am under many obligations for literary assistance to the learned
Corsican Benedetto Viale, Professor of Chemistry in the University
of Rome; and it would be difficult for me to say how helpful various
friends were to me in Corsica itself. My especial thanks are, however,
due to the exiled Florentine geographer, Francesco Marmocchi, and to
Camillo Friess, Archivarius in Ajaccio.
ROME, April 2, 1853.
The Translator begs to acknowledge his obligations to L. C. C. (the
translator of Grillparzer's _Sappho_), for the translation of the
Lullaby, pp. 240, 241, in the first volume; the Voceros which begin on
pp. 51, 52, and 54, in the second volume, and the poem which concludes
the work.
EDINBURGH, February 1855.
CONTENTS.
BOOK I.--HISTORY.
PAGE
CHAP. I.--Earliest Accounts, 1
II.--The Greeks, Etruscans, Carthaginians, and Romans in Corsica, 4
III.--State of the Island during the Roman Period, 8
IV.--Commencement of the Mediæval Period, 11
V.--Feudalism in Corsica, 14
VI.--The Pisans in Corsica, 17
VII.--Pisa or Genoa?--Giudice della Rocca, 20
VIII.--Commencement of Genoese Supremacy, 22
IX.--Struggles with Genoa--Arrigo della Rocca, 24
X.--Vincentello d'Istria, 27
XI.--The Bank of St. George of Genoa, 30
XII.--Patriotic Struggles--Giampolo da Leca--Renuccio della
Rocca, 34
XIII.--State of Corsica under the Bank of St. George, 38
XIV.--The Patriot Sampiero, 41
XV.--Sampiero--France and Corsica, 45
XVI.--Sampiero in Exile--His wife Vannina, 48
XVII.--Return of Sampiero--Stephen Doria, 52
XVIII.--The Death of Sampiero, 58
XIX.--Sampiero's Son, Alfonso--Treaty with Genoa, 62
BOOK II.--HISTORY.
CHAP. I.--State of Corsica in the Sixteenth Century--A Greek Colony
established on the Island, 66
II.--Insurrection against Genoa, 72
III.--Successes against Genoa, and German Mercenaries--Peace
concluded, 76
IV.--Recommencement of Hostilities--Declaration of
Independence--Democratic Constitution of Costa, 81
V.--Baron Theodore von Neuhoff, 85
VI.--Theodore I., King of Corsica, 90
VII.--Genoa in Difficulties--Aided by France--Theodore expelled, 94
VIII.--The French reduce Corsica--New Insurrection--The Patriot
Gaffori, 98
IX.--Pasquale Paoli, 105
X.--Paoli's Legislation, 111
XI.--Corsica under Paoli--Traffic in Nations--Victories over
the French, 119
XII.--The Dying Struggle, 124
BOOK III.--WANDERINGS IN THE SUMMER OF 1852.
CHAP. I.--Arrival in Corsica, 130
II.--The City of Bastia, 137
III.--Environs of Bastia, 144
IV.--Francesco Marmocchi of Florence--The Geology of Corsica, 149
V.--A Second Lesson, the Vegetation of Corsica, 154
VI.--Learned Men, 160
VII.--Corsican Statistics--Relation of Corsica to France, 164
VIII.--Bracciamozzo the Bandit, 172
IX.--The Vendetta, or Revenge to the Death! 176
X.--Bandit Life, 185
BOOK IV.
CHAP. I.--Southern Part of Cape Corso, 198
II.--From Brando to Luri, 203
III.--Pino, 208
IV.--The Tower of Seneca, 212
V.--Seneca Morale, 218
VI.--Seneca Birbone, 225
VII.--Seneca Eroe, 234
VIII.--Thoughts of a Bride, 236
IX.--Corsican Superstitions, 242
BOOK V.
CHAP. I.--Vescovato and the Corsican Historians, 246
II.--Rousseau and the Corsicans, 256
III.--The Moresca--Armed Dance of the Corsicans, 259
IV.--Joachim Murat, 264
V.--Venzolasca--Casabianca--The Old Cloisters, 275
VI.--Hospitality and Family Life in Oreto--The Corsican
Antigone, 277
VII.--A Ride through the District of Orezza to Morosaglia, 288
VIII.--Pasquale Paoli, 293
IX.--Paoli's Birthplace, 305
X.--Clemens Paoli, 314
XI.--The Old Hermit, 317
XII.--The Battle-field of Ponte Nuovo, 321
WANDERINGS IN CORSICA.
BOOK I.--HISTORY.
CHAP. I.--EARLIEST ACCOUNTS.
The oldest notices of Corsica we have, are to be found in the Greek
and Roman historians and geographers. They do not furnish us with any
precise information as to what races originally colonized the island,
whether Phœnicians, Etruscans, or Ligurians. All these ancient races
had been occupants of Corsica before the Carthaginians, the Phocæan
Greeks, and the Romans planted their colonies upon it.
The position of the islands of Corsica and Sardinia, in the great
western basin of the Mediterranean, made them points of convergence
for the commerce and colonization of the surrounding nations of the
two continents. To the north, at the distance of a day's journey, lies
Gaul; three days' journey westwards, Spain; Etruria is close at hand
upon the east; and Africa is but a few days' voyage to the south. The
continental nations necessarily, therefore, came into contact in these
islands, and one after the other left their stamp upon them. This was
particularly the case in Sardinia, a country entitled to be considered
one of the most remarkable in Europe, from the variety and complexity
of the national characteristics, and from the multifarious traces left
upon it by so many different races, in buildings, sculptures, coins,
language, and customs, which, deposited, so to speak, in successive
strata, have gradually determined the present ethnographic conformation
of the island. Both Corsica and Sardinia lie upon the boundary-line
which separates the western basin of the Mediterranean into a Spanish
and an Italian half; and as soon as the influences of Oriental and
Greek colonization had been eradicated politically, if not physically,
these two nations began to exercise their determining power upon the
islands. In Sardinia, the Spanish element predominated; in Corsica, the
Italian. This is very evident at the present day from the languages.
In later times, a third determining element, but a purely political
one--the French, was added in the case of Corsica. At a period of the
remotest antiquity, both Spanish and Gallo-Celtic or Ligurian tribes
had passed over to Corsica; but the Spanish characteristics which
struck the philosopher Seneca so forcibly in the Corsicans of his time,
disappeared, except in so far as they are still visible in the somewhat
gloomy and taciturn, and withal choleric disposition of the present
islanders.
The most ancient name of the island is Corsica--a later, Cyrnus.
The former is said to be derived from Corsus, a son of Hercules, and
brother of Sardus, who founded colonies on the islands, to which they
gave their names. Others say that Corsus was a Trojan, who carried off
Sica, a niece of Dido, and that in honour of her the island received
its appellation. Such is the fable of the oldest Corsican chronicler,
Johann della Grossa.
Cyrnus was a name in use among the Greeks. Pausanias says, in his
geography of Phocis: "The island near Sardinia (Ichnusa) is called by
the native Libyans, Corsica; by the Greeks, Cyrnus." The designation
Libyans, is very generally applied to the Phœnicians, and it is
highly improbable that Pausanias was thinking of an aboriginal race.
He viewed them as immigrated colonists, like those in Sardinia. He
says, in the same book, that the Libyans were the first who came to
Sardinia, which they found already inhabited, and that after them came
the Greeks and Hispanians. The word Cyrnos itself has been derived from
the Phœnician, _Kir_--horn, promontory. In short, these matters are
vague, traditionary, hypothetical.
So much seems to be certain, from the ancient sources which supplied
Pausanias with his information, that in very early times the
Phœnicians founded colonies on both islands, that they found them
already inhabited, and that afterwards an immigration from Spain took
place. Seneca, who spent eight years of exile in Corsica, in his book
_De Consolatione_, addressed to his mother Helvia, and written from
that island, has the following passage (cap. viii.):--"This island
has frequently changed its inhabitants. Omitting all that is involved
in the darkness of antiquity, I shall only say that the Greeks,
who at present inhabit Massilia (Marseilles), after they had left
Phocæa, settled at first at Corsica. It is uncertain what drove them
away--perhaps the unhealthy climate, the growing power of Italy, or
the scarcity of havens; for, that the savage character of the natives
was not the reason, we learn from their betaking themselves to the then
wild and uncivilized tribes of Gaul. Afterwards, Ligurians crossed over
to the island; and also Hispanians, as may be seen from the similarity
of the modes of life; for the same kinds of covering for the head and
the feet are found here, as among the Cantabrians--and there are many
resemblances in words; but the entire language has lost its original
character, through intercourse with the Greeks and Ligurians." It is
to be lamented that Seneca did not consider it worth the pains to make
more detailed inquiry into the condition of the island. Even for him
its earliest history was involved in obscurity; how much more so must
it be for us?
Seneca is probably mistaken, however, in not making the Ligurians and
Hispanians arrive on the island till after the Phocæans. I have no
doubt that the Celtic races were the first and oldest inhabitants of
Corsica. The Corsican physiognomy, even of the present time, appears as
a Celtic-Ligurian.
CHAPTER II.
THE GREEKS, ETRUSCANS, CARTHAGINIANS, AND ROMANS IN CORSICA.
The first historically accredited event in relation to Corsica, is that
immigration of the fugitive Phocæans definitely mentioned by Herodotus.
We know that these Asiatic Greeks had resolved rather to quit their
native country, than submit to inevitable slavery under Cyrus, and
that, after a solemn oath to the gods, they carried everything they
possessed on board ship, and put out to sea. They first negotiated
with the Chians for the cession of the Œnusian Islands, but without
success; they then set sail for Corsica, not without a definite enough
aim, as they had already twenty years previously founded on that island
the city of Alalia. They were, accordingly, received by their own
colonists here, and remained with them five years, "building temples,"
as Herodotus says; "but because they made plundering incursions on
their neighbours, the Tyrrhenians and Carthaginians brought sixty
ships into the seas. The Phocæans, on their side, had equipped a fleet
of equal size, and came to an engagement with them off the coast of
Sardinia. They gained a victory, but it cost them dear; for they lost
forty vessels, and the rest had been rendered useless--their beaks
having been bent. They returned to Alalia, and taking their wives and
children, and as much of their property as they could, with them, they
left the island of Cyrnus, and sailed to Rhegium." It is well known
that they afterwards founded Massilia, the present Marseilles.
We have therefore in Alalia, the present Aleria--a colony of an
origin indubitably Greek, though it afterwards fell into the hands
of the Etruscans. The history of this flourishing commercial people
compels us to assume, that, even before the arrival of the Phocæans,
they had founded colonies in Corsica. It is impossible that the
powerful Populonia, lying so near Corsica on the coast opposite, with
Elba already in its possession, should never have made any attempt
to establish its influence along the eastern shores of the island.
Diodorus says in his fifth book:--"There are two notable cities in
Corsica--Calaris and Nicæa; Calaris (a corruption of Alalia or Aleria)
was founded by the Phocæans. These were expelled by the Tyrrhenians,
after they had been some time in the island. The Tyrrhenians founded
Nicæa, when they became masters of the sea." Nicæa is probably the
modern Mariana, which lies on the same level region of the coast. We
may assume that this colony existed contemporaneously with Alalia,
and that the immigration of the entire community of Phocæans excited
jealousy and alarm in the Tyrrhenians, whence the collision between
them and the Greeks. It is uncertain whether the Carthaginians had
at this period possessions in Corsica; but they had colonies in
the neighbouring Sardinia. Pausanias tells us that they subjugated
the Libyans and Hispanians on this island, and built the two cities
of Caralis (Cagliari) and Sulchos (Palma di Solo). The threatened
danger from the Greeks now induced them to make common cause with the
Tyrrhenians, who also had settlements in Sardinia, against the Phocæan
intruders. Ancient writers further mention an immigration of Corsicans
into Sardinia, where they are said to have founded twelve cities.
For a considerable period we now hear nothing more about the fortunes
of Corsica, from which the Etruscans continued to draw supplies of
honey, wax, timber for ship-building, and slaves. Their power gradually
sank, and they gave way to the Carthaginians, who seem to have put
themselves in complete possession of both islands--that is, of their
emporiums and havens--for the tribes of the interior had yielded to
no foe. During the Punic Wars, the conquering Romans deprived the
Carthaginians in their turn of both islands. Corsica is at first not
named, either in the Punic treaty of the time of Tarquinius, or in the
conditions of peace at the close of the first Punic War. Sardinia had
been ceded to the Romans; the vicinity of Corsica could not but induce
them to make themselves masters of that island also; both, lying in
the centre of a sea which washed the shores of Spain, Gaul, Italy, and
Africa, afforded the greatest facilities for establishing stations
directed towards the coasts of all the countries which Rome at that
time was preparing to subdue.
We are informed, that in the year 260 before the birth of Christ, the
Consul Lucius Cornelius Scipio crossed over to Corsica, and destroyed
the city of Aleria, and that he conquered at once the Corsicans,
Sardinians, and the Carthaginian Hanno. The mutilated inscription on
the tomb of Scipio has the words--HEC CEPIT CORSICA ALERIAQUE VRBE. But
the subjugation of the wild Corsicans was no easy matter. They made a
resistance as heroic as that of the Samnites. We even find that the
Romans suffered a number of defeats, and that the Corsicans several
times rebelled. In the year 240, M. Claudius led an army against the
Corsicans. Defeated, and in a situation of imminent danger, he offered
them favourable conditions. They accepted them, but the Senate refused
to confirm the treaty. It ordered the Consul, C. Licinius Varus, to
chastise the Corsicans, delivering Claudius at the same time into their
hands, that they might do with him as they chose. This was frequently
the policy of the Romans, when they wished to quiet their religious
scruples about an oath. The Corsicans did as the Spaniards and Samnites
had done in similar instances. They would not receive the innocent
general, and sent him back unharmed. On his return to Rome, he was
strangled, and thrown upon the Gemonian stairs.
Though subdued by the Romans, the Corsicans were continually rising
anew, already exhibiting that patriotism and love of freedom which in
much later times drew the eyes of the world on this little isolated
people. They rebelled at the same time with the Sardinians; but when
these had been conquered, the Corsicans also were obliged to submit
to the Consul Caius Papirus, who defeated them in the bloody battle
of the "Myrtle-field." But they regained a footing in the mountain
strongholds, and it appears that they forced the Roman commander to an
advantageous peace.
They rose again in the year 181. Marcus Pinarius, Prætor of Sardinia,
immediately landed in Corsica with an army, and defeated the islanders
with dreadful carnage in a battle of which Livy gives an account--they
lost two thousand men killed. The Corsicans submitted, gave hostages
and a tribute of one hundred thousand pounds of wax. Seven years later,
a new insurrection and other bloody battles--seven thousand Corsicans
were slain, and two thousand taken prisoners. The tribute was raised to
two hundred thousand pounds of wax. Ten years afterwards, this heroic
people is again in arms, compelling the Romans to send out a consular
army: Juventius Thalea, and after him Scipio Nasica, completed the
subjugation of the island in the year 162.
The Romans had thus to fight with these islanders for more than a
hundred years, before they reduced them to subjection. Corsica was
governed in common with Sardinia by a Prætor, who resided in Cagliari,
and sent a _legatus_ or lieutenant to Corsica. But it was not till the
time of the first civil war, that the Romans began to entertain serious
thoughts of colonizing the island. The celebrated Marius founded, on
the beautiful level of the east coast, the city of Mariana; and Sulla
afterwards built on the same plain the city of Aleria, restoring the
old Alalia of the Phocæans. Corsica now began to be Romanized, to
modify its Celtic-Spanish language, and to adopt Roman customs. We
do not hear that the Corsicans again ventured to rebel against their
masters; and the island is only once more mentioned in Roman history,
when Sextus Pompey, defying the triumvirs, establishes a maritime power
in the Mediterranean, and takes possession of Corsica, Sardinia, and
Sicily. His empire was of short duration.
CHAPTER III.
STATE OF THE ISLAND DURING THE ROMAN PERIOD.
The nature of its interior prevents us from believing that the
condition of the island was by any means so flourishing during the long
periods of its subjection to the Romans, as some writers are disposed
to assume. They contented themselves, as it appears, with the two
colonies mentioned, and the establishment of some ports. The beautiful
coast opposite Italy was the region mainly cultivated. They had only
made a single road in Corsica. According to the Itinerary of Antonine,
this Roman road led from Mariana along the coast southwards to Aleria,
to Præsidium, Portus Favoni, and Palæ, on the straits, near the modern
Bonifazio. This was the usual place for crossing to Sardinia, in which
the road was continued from Portus Tibulæ (_cartio Aragonese_)--a place
of some importance, to Caralis, the present Cagliari.
Pliny speaks of thirty-three towns in Corsica, but mentions only the
two colonies by name. Strabo, again, who wrote not long before him,
says of Corsica: "It contains some cities of no great size, as Blesino,
Charax, Eniconæ, and Vapanes." These names are to be found in no other
writer. Pliny has probably made every fort a town. Ptolemy, however,
gives the localities of Corsica in detail, with the appellations of
the tribes inhabiting them; many of his names still survive in Corsica
unaltered, or easily recognised.
The ancient authors have left us some notices of the character of the
country and people during this Roman period. I shall give them here, as
it is interesting to compare what they say with the accounts we have of
Corsica in the Middle Ages and at the present time.
Strabo says of Corsica: "It is thinly inhabited, for it is a rugged
country, and in most places has no practicable roads. Hence those
who inhabit the mountains live by plunder, and are more untameable
than wild beasts. When the Roman generals have made an expedition
against the island, and taken their strongholds, they bring away with
them a great number of slaves, and then people in Rome may see with
astonishment, what fierce and utterly savage creatures these are.
For they either take away their own lives, or they tire their master
by their obstinate disobedience and stupidity, so that he rues his
bargain, though he have bought them for the veriest trifle."
Diodorus: "When the Tyrrhenians had the Corsican cities in their
possession, they demanded from the natives tribute of resin, wax, and
honey, which are here produced in abundance. The Corsican slaves are
of great excellence, and seem to be preferable to other slaves for
the common purposes of life. The whole broad island is for the most
part mountainous, rich in shady woods, watered by little rivers. The
inhabitants live on milk, honey, and flesh, all which they have in
plenty. The Corsicans are just towards each other, and live in a more
civilized manner than all other barbarians. For when honey-combs are
found in the woods, they belong without dispute to the first finder.
The sheep, being distinguished by certain marks, remain safe, even
although their master does not guard them. Also in the regulation of
the rest of their life, each one in his place observes the laws of
rectitude with wonderful faithfulness. They have a custom at the birth
of a child which is most strange and new; for no care is taken of a
woman in child-birth; but instead of her, the husband lays himself for
some days as if sick and worn out in bed. Much boxwood grows there,
and that of no mean sort. From this arises the great bitterness of the
honey. The island is inhabited by barbarians, whose speech is strange
and hard to be understood. The number of the inhabitants is more than
thirty thousand."
Seneca: "For, leaving out of account such places as by the pleasantness
of the region, and their advantageous situation, allure great numbers,
go to remote spots on rude islands--go to Sciathus, and Seriphus, and
Gyarus, and Corsica, and you will find no place of banishment where
some one or other does not reside for his own pleasure. Where shall
we find anything so naked, so steep and rugged on every side, as
this rocky island? Where is there a land in respect of its products
scantier, in respect of its people more inhospitable, in respect of its
situation more desolate, or in respect of its climate more unhealthy?
And yet there live here more foreigners than natives."
According to the accounts of the oldest writers, we must doubtless
believe that Corsica was in those times to a very great extent
uncultivated, and, except in the matter of wood, poor in natural
productions. That Seneca exaggerates is manifest, and is to be
explained from the situation in which he wrote. Strabo and Diodorus
are of opposite opinions as to the character of the Corsican slaves.
The former has in his favour the history and unvarying character of
the Corsicans, who have ever shown themselves in the highest degree
incapable of slavery, and Strabo could have pronounced on them no
fairer eulogy than in speaking of them as he has done. What Diodorus,
who writes as if more largely informed, says of the Corsican sense of
justice, is entirely true, and is confirmed by the experience of every
age.
Among the epigrams on Corsica ascribed to Seneca, there is one which
says of the Corsicans: Their first law is to revenge themselves, their
second to live by plunder, their third to lie, and their fourth to deny
the gods.
This is all the information of importance we have from the Greeks and
Romans on the subject of Corsica.
CHAPTER IV.
COMMENCEMENT OF THE MEDIÆVAL PERIOD.
Corsica remained in the possession of the Romans, from whom in later
times it received the Christian religion, till the fall of Rome made it
once more a prey to the rovers by land and sea. Here, again, we have
new inundations of various tribes, and a motley mixture of nations,
languages, and customs, as in the earliest period.
Germans, Byzantine Greeks, Moors, Romanized races appear successively
in Corsica. But the Romanic stamp, impressed by the Romans and
strengthened by bands of fugitive Italians, has already taken its place
as an indelible and leading trait in Corsican character. The Vandals
came to Corsica under Genseric, and maintained themselves in the island
a long time, till they were expelled by Belisarius. After the Goths and
Longobards had in their turn invaded the island and been its masters,
it fell, along with Sardinia, into the hands of the Byzantines, and
remained in their possession nearly two hundred years. It was during
this period that numerous Greek names and roots, still to be met with
throughout the country and in the language, originated.
The Greek rule was of the Turkish kind. They appeared to look upon
the Corsicans as a horde of savages; they loaded them with impossible
exactions, and compelled them to sell their very children in order to
raise the enormous tribute. A period of incessant fighting now begins
for Corsica, and the history of the nation consists for centuries in
one uninterrupted struggle for existence and freedom.
The first irruption of the Saracens occurred in 713. Ever since
Spain had become Moorish, the Mahommedans had been scouring the
Mediterranean, robbing and plundering in all the islands, and founding
in many places a dominion of protracted duration. The Greek Emperors,
whose hands were full in the East, totally abandoned the West, which
found new protectors in the Franks. That Charlemagne had to do with
Corsica or with the Moors there, appears from his historian Eginhard,
who states that the Emperor sent out a fleet under Count Burkhard,
to defend Corsica against the Saracens. His son Charles gave them a
defeat at Mariana. These struggles with the Moors are still largely
preserved in the traditions of the Corsican people. The Roman noble,
Hugo Colonna, a rebel against Pope Stephen IV., who sent him to Corsica
with a view to rid himself of him and his two associates, Guido Savelli
and Amondo Nasica, figures prominently in the Moorish wars. Colonna's
first achievement was the taking of Aleria, after a triple combat of
a romantic character, between three chivalrous paladins and as many
Moorish knights. He then defeated the Moorish prince Nugalon, near
Mariana, and forced all the heathenish people in the island to submit
to the rite of baptism. The comrade of this Hugo Colonna was, according
to the Corsican chronicler, a nephew of Ganelon of Mayence, also named
Ganelon, who had come to Corsica to wipe off the disgrace of his house
in Moorish blood.
The Tuscan margrave, Bonifacius, after a great naval victory over the
Saracens on the coast of Africa, near Utica, is now said to have landed
at the southern extremity of Corsica on his return home, and to have
built a fortress on the chalk cliffs there, which received from its
founder the name of Bonifazio. This took place in the year 833. Louis
the Pious granted him the feudal lordship of Corsica. Etruria thus
acquires supremacy over the neighbouring island a second time, and it
is certain that the Tuscan margraves continued to govern Corsica till
the death of Lambert, the last of their line, in 951.
Berengarius, and after him Adalbert of Friuli, were the next masters
of the island; then the Emperor Otto II. gave it to his adherent, the
Margrave Hugo of Toscana. No further historical details can be arrived
at with any degree of precision till the period when the city of Pisa
obtained supremacy in Corsica.
In these times, and up till the beginning of the eleventh century,
a fierce and turbulent nobility had been forming in Corsica, as in
Italy--the various families of which held sway throughout the island.
This aristocracy was only in a very limited degree of native origin.
Italian magnates who had fled from the barbarians, Longobard, Gothic,
Greek or Frankish vassals, soldiers who had earned for themselves land
and feudal title by their exertions in the wars against the Moors,
gradually founded houses and hereditary seigniories. The Corsican
chronicler makes all the seigniors spring from the Roman knight Hugo
Colonna and his companions. He makes him Count of Corsica, and traces
to his son Cinarco the origin of the most celebrated family of the old
Corsican nobility, the Cinarchesi; to another son, Bianco, that of the
Biancolacci; to Pino, a son of Savelli's, the Pinaschi; and in the
same way we have Amondaschi, Rollandini, descendants of Ganelon and
others. In later times various families emerged into distinction from
this confusion of petty tyrants, the Gentili, and Signori da Mare on
Cape Corso; beyond the mountains, the seigniors of Leca, of Istria, and
Rocca, and those of Ornans and of Bozio.
CHAPTER V.
FEUDALISM IN CORSICA--THE LEGISLATOR SAMBUCUCCIO.
For a long period the history of the Corsicans presents nothing but
a bloody picture of the tyranny of the barons over the lower orders,
and the quarrels of these nobles with each other. The coasts became
desolate, the old cities of Aleria and Mariana were gradually forsaken;
the inhabitants of the maritime districts fled from the Saracens higher
up into the hills, where they built villages, strengthened by nature
and art so as to resist the corsairs and the barons. In few countries
can the feudal nobility have been so fierce and cruel as in Corsica.
In the midst of a half barbarous and quite poor population, Nature
around them savage as themselves, unchecked by any counterpoise of
social morality or activity, unbridled by the Church, cut off from the
world and civilizing intercourse--let the reader imagine these nobles
lording it in their rocky fastnesses, and, giving the rein to their
restless and unsettled natures in sensuality and violence. In other
countries all that was humanizing, submissive to law, positive and
not destructive in tendency, collected itself in the cities, organized
itself into guilds and corporate bodies, and uniting in a civic league,
made head against the aristocracy. But it was extremely difficult to
accomplish anything like this in Corsica, where trade and manufactures
were unknown, where there were neither cities nor a commercial
middle-class. All the more note-worthy is the phenomenon, that a nation
of rude peasants should, in a manner reminding us of patriarchal times,
have succeeded in forming itself into a democracy of a marked and
distinctive character.
The barons of the country, engaged in continual wars with the oppressed
population of the villages, and fighting with each other for sole
supremacy, had submitted at the beginning of the eleventh century
to one of their own number, the lord of Cinarca, who aimed at making
himself tyrant of the whole island. Scanty as our materials for drawing
a conclusion are, we must infer from what we know, that the Corsicans
of the interior had hitherto maintained a desperate resistance to the
barons. In danger of being crushed by Cinarca, the people assembled to
a general council. It is the first Parliament of the Corsican Commons
of which we hear in their history, and it was held in Morosaglia.
On this occasion they chose a brave and able man to be their leader,
Sambucuccio of Alando, with whom begins the long series of Corsican
patriots, who have earned renown by their love of country and heroic
courage.
Sambucuccio gained a victory over Cinarca, and compelled him to
retire within his own domains. As a means of securing and extending
the advantage thus gained, he organized a confederacy, as was done in
Switzerland under similar circumstances, though somewhat later. All
the country between Aleria, Calvi, and Brando, formed itself into a
free commonwealth, taking the title of Terra del Commune, which it has
retained till very recently. The constitution of this commonwealth,
simple and entirely democratic in its character, was based upon the
natural divisions of the country. These arise from its mountain-system,
which separates the island into a series of valleys. As a general
rule, the collective hamlets in a valley form a parish, called at the
present day, as in the earliest times, by the Italian name, _pieve_
(plebs). Each _pieve_, therefore, included a certain number of little
communities (paese); and each of these, in its popular assembly,
elected a presiding magistrate, or _podestà_, with two or more Fathers
of the Community (_padri del commune_), probably, as was customary
in later times, holding office for a single year. The Fathers of
the Community were to be worthy of the name; they were to exercise a
fatherly care over the welfare of their respective districts; they were
to maintain peace, and shield the defenceless. In a special assembly of
their own they chose an official, with the title _caporale_, who seems
to have been invested with the functions of a tribune of the Commons,
and was expressly intended to defend the rights of the people in every
possible way. The podestàs, again, in their assembly, had the right
of choosing the _Dodici_ or Council of Twelve--the highest legislative
body in the confederacy.
However imperfect and confused in point of date our information on
the subject of Sambucuccio and his enactments may be, still we gather
from it the certainty that the Corsicans, even at that early period,
were able by their own unaided energies to construct for themselves a
democratic commonwealth. The seeds thus planted could never afterwards
be eradicated, but continued to develop themselves under all the storms
that assailed them, ennobling the rude vigour of a spirited and warlike
people, encouraging through every period an unexampled patriotism,
and a heroic love of freedom, and making it possible that, at a time
when the great nations in the van of European culture lay prostrate
under despotic forms of government, Corsica should have produced the
democratic constitution of Pasquale Paoli, which originated before
North America freed herself, and when the French Revolution had not
begun. Corsica had no slaves, no serfs; every Corsican was free. He
shared in the political life of his country through the self-government
of his commune, and the popular assemblies--and this, in conjunction
with the sense of justice, and the love of country, is the necessary
condition of political liberty in general. The Corsicans, as Diodorus
mentions to their honour, were not deficient in the sense of justice;
but conflicting interests within their island, and the foreign
tyrannies to which, from their position and small numbers, they were
constantly exposed, prevented them from ever arriving at prosperity as
a State.
CHAPTER VI.
THE PISANS IN CORSICA.
The legislator Sambucuccio fared as many other legislators have
done. His death was a sudden and severe blow to his enactments. The
seigniors immediately issued from their castles, and spread war and
discord over the land. The people, looking round for help, besought
the Tuscan margrave Malaspina to rescue them, and placed themselves
under his protection. Malaspina landed on the island with a body of
troops, defeated the barons, and restored peace. This happened about
the year 1020, and the Malaspinas appear to have remained rulers of
the Terra del Commune till 1070, while the seigniors bore sway in the
rest of the country. At this time, too, the Pope, who pretended to
derive his rights from the Frankish kings, interfered in the affairs
of the island. It would even seem that he assumed the position of its
feudal superior, and that Malaspina was Count of Corsica by the papal
permission. The Corsican bishoprics furnished him with another means of
establishing his influence in the island. The number of these had in
the course of time increased to six, Aleria, Ajaccio, Accia, Mariana,
Nebbio, and Sagona.
Gregory VII. sent Landulph, Bishop of Pisa, to Corsica, to persuade
the people to put themselves under the power of the Church. This having
been effected, Gregory, and then Urban II., in the year 1098, granted
the perpetual feudal superiority of the island to the bishopric of
Pisa, now raised to an archbishopric. The Pisans, therefore, became
masters of the island, and they maintained a precarious possession of
it, in the face of continual resistance, for nearly a hundred years.
Their government was wise, just, and benevolent, and is eulogized
by all the Corsican historians. They exerted themselves to bring the
country under cultivation, and to improve the natural products of the
soil. They rebuilt towns, erected bridges, made roads, built towers
along the coast, and introduced even art into the island, at least
in so far as regarded church architecture. The best old churches in
Corsica are of Pisan origin, and may be instantly recognised as such
from the elegance of their style. Every two years the republic of Pisa
sent as their representative to the island, a Giudice, or judge, who
governed and administered justice in the name of the city. The communal
arrangements of Sambucuccio were not altered.
Meanwhile, Genoa had been watching with jealous eyes the progress
of Pisan ascendency in the adjacent island, and could not persuade
herself to allow her rival undisputed possession of so advantageous a
station in the Mediterranean, immediately before the gates of Genoa.
Even when Urban II. had made Pisa the metropolitan see of the Corsican
bishops, the Genoese had protested, and they several times compelled
the popes to withdraw the Pisan investiture. At length, in the year
1133, Pope Innocent II. yielded to the urgent solicitations of the
Genoese, and divided the investiture, subordinating to Genoa, now also
made an archbishopric, the Corsican bishops of Mariana, Accia, and
Nebbio, while Pisa retained the bishoprics of Aleria, Ajaccio, and
Sagona. But the Genoese were not satisfied with this; they aimed at
secular supremacy over the whole island. Constantly at war with Pisa,
they seized a favourable opportunity of surprising Bonifazio, when the
inhabitants of the town were celebrating a marriage festival. Honorius
III. was obliged to confirm them in the possession of this important
place in the year 1217. They fortified the impregnable cliff, and made
it the fulcrum of their influence in the island; they granted the city
commercial and other privileges, and induced a great number of Genoese
families to settle there. Bonifazio thus became the first Genoese
colony in Corsica.
CHAPTER VII.
PISA OR GENOA?--GIUDICE DELLA ROCCA.
Corsica was now rent into factions. One section of the inhabitants
inclined to Pisa, another to Genoa, many of the seigniors maintained
an independent position, and the Terra del Commune kept itself apart.
The Pisans, though hard pressed by their powerful foes in Italy, were
still unwilling to give up Corsica. They made an islander of the old
family of Cinarca, their Lieutenant and Giudice, and committed to him
the defence of his country against Genoa.
This man's name was Sinucello, and he became famous under the
appellation of Giudice della Rocca. His patriotism and heroic courage,
his wisdom and love of justice, have given him a place among those who
in barbarous times have distinguished themselves by their individual
excellencies. The Cinarchesi, it is said, had been driven by one of the
papal margraves to Sardinia. Sinucello was a descendant of the exiled
family. He had gone to Pisa and attained to eminence in the service
of the republic. The hopes of the Pisans were now centred in him. They
made him Count and Judge of the island, gave him some ships, and sent
him to Corsica in the year 1280. He succeeded, with the aid of his
adherents there, in overpowering the Genoese party among the seigniors,
and restoring the Pisan ascendency. The Genoese sent Thomas Spinola
with troops. Spinola suffered a severe defeat at the hands of Giudice.
The war continued many years, Giudice carrying it on with indefatigable
vigour in the name of the Pisan republic; but after the Genoese had
won against the Pisans the great naval engagement at Meloria, in which
the ill-fated Ugolino commanded, the power of the Pisans declined, and
Corsica was no longer to be maintained.
After the victory the Genoese made themselves masters of the east
coast of Corsica. They intrusted the subjugation of the island, and the
expulsion of the brave Giudice, to their General Luchetto Doria. But
Doria too found himself severely handled by his opponent; and for years
this able man continued to make an effectual resistance, keeping at
bay both the Genoese and the seigniors of the island, which seemed now
to have fallen into a state of complete anarchy. Giudice is one of the
favourite national heroes of the chroniclers: they throw an air of the
marvellous round his noble and truly Corsican figure, and tell romantic
stories of his long-continued struggles. However unimportant these
may be in a historical point of view, still they are characteristic of
the period, the country, and the men. Giudice had six daughters, who
were married to persons of high rank in the island. His bitter enemy,
Giovanninello, had also six daughters, equally well married. The six
sons-in-law of the latter form a conspiracy against Giudice, and in
one night kill seventy fighting men of his retainers. This gives rise
to a separation of the entire island into two parties, and a feud like
that between the Guelphs and Ghibellines, which lasts for two hundred
years. Giovanninello was driven to Genoa: returning, however, soon
after, he built the fortress of Calvi, which immediately threw itself
into the hands of the Genoese, and became the second of their colonies
in the island. The chroniclers have much to say of Giudice's impartial
justice, as well as of his clemency,--as, for example, the following.
He had once taken a great many Genoese prisoners, and he promised
their freedom to all those who had wives, only these wives were to come
over themselves and fetch their husbands. They came; but a nephew of
Giudice's forced a Genoese woman to spend a night with him. His uncle
had him beheaded on the spot, and sent the captives home according
to his promise. We see how such a man should have been by preference
called Giudice--judge; since among a barbarous people, and in barbarous
times, the character of judge must unite in itself all virtue and all
other authority.
In his extreme old age Giudice grew blind. A disagreement arose
between the blind old man and his natural son Salnese, who, having
treacherously got him into his power, delivered him into the hands of
the Genoese. When Giudice was being conducted on board the ship that
was to convey him to Genoa, he threw himself upon his knees on the
shore, and solemnly imprecated a curse on his son Salnese, and all
his posterity. Giudice della Rocca was thrown into a miserable Genoese
dungeon, and died in Genoa in the tower of Malapaga, in the year 1312.
The Corsican historian Filippini, describes him as one of the most
remarkable men the island has produced; he was brave, skilful in the
use of arms, singularly rapid in the execution of his designs, wise in
council, impartial in administering justice, liberal to his friends,
and firm in adversity--qualities which almost all distinguished
Corsicans have possessed. With Giudice fell the last remains of Pisan
ascendency in Corsica.
CHAPTER VIII.
COMMENCEMENT OF GENOESE SUPREMACY--CORSICAN COMMUNISTS.
Pisa made a formal surrender of the island to Genoa, and thirty years
after the death of Giudice, the Terra del Commune, and the greater
number of the seigniors submitted to the Genoese supremacy. The Terra
sent four messengers to the Genoese Senate, and tendered its submission
under the condition, that the Corsicans should pay no further tax
than twenty soldi for each hearth. The Senate accepted the condition,
and in 1348 the first Genoese governor landed in the island. It was
Boccaneria, a man who is praised for his vigour and prudence, and who,
during his single year of power, gave the country peace. But he had
scarcely returned from his post, when the factions raised their heads
anew, and plunged the country into the wildest anarchy. From the first
the rights of Genoa had not been undisputed, Boniface VIII. having in
1296, in virtue of the old feudal claims of the papal chair, granted
the superiority of Corsica and Sardinia to King James of Arragon. A new
foreign power, therefore--Spain, connected with Corsica at a period of
hoary antiquity--seemed now likely to seek a footing on the island; and
in the meantime, though no overt attempt at conquest had been made,
those Corsicans who refused allegiance to Genoa, found a point of
support in the House of Arragon.
The next epoch of Corsican history exhibits a series of the most
sanguinary conflicts between the seigniors and Genoa. Such confusion
had arisen immediately on the death of Giudice, and the people were
reduced to such straits, that the chronicler wonders why, in the
wretched state of the country, the population did not emigrate in a
body. The barons, as soon as they no longer felt the heavy hand of
Giudice, used their power most tyrannously, some as independent lords,
others as tributary to Genoa--all sought to domineer, to extort. The
entire dissolution of social order produced a sect of Communists,
extravagant enthusiasts, who appeared contemporaneously in Italy.
This sect, an extraordinary phenomenon in the wild Corsica, became
notorious and dreaded under the name of the Giovannali. It took its
rise in the little district of Carbini, on the other side the hills.
Its originators were bastard sons of Guglielmuccio, two brothers,
Polo and Arrigo, seigniors of Attalà. "Among these people," relates
the chronicler, "the women were as the men; and it was one of their
laws that all things should be in common, the wives and children as
well as other possessions. Perhaps they wished to renew that golden
age of which the poets feign that it ended with the reign of Saturn.
These Giovannali performed certain penances after their fashion, and
assembled at night in the churches, where, in going through their
superstitious rites and false ceremonies, they concealed the lights,
and, in the foulest and the most disgraceful manner, took pleasure
the one with the other, according as they were inclined. It was Polo
who led this devilish crew of sectaries, which began to increase
marvellously, not only on this side the mountains, but also everywhere
beyond them."
The Pope, at that time residing in France, excommunicated the sect; he
sent a commissary with soldiers to Corsica, who gave the Giovannali,
now joined by many seigniors, a defeat in the Pieve Alesani, where they
had raised a fortress. Wherever a Giovannalist was found, he was killed
on the spot. The phenomenon is certainly remarkable; possibly the
idea originally came from Italy, and it is hardly to be wondered at,
if among the poor distracted Corsicans, who considered human equality
as something natural and inalienable, it found, as the chronicler
tells us, an extended reception. Religious enthusiasm, or fanatic
extravagance, never at any other time took root among the Corsicans;
and the island was never priest-ridden: it was spared at least this
plague.
CHAPTER IX.
STRUGGLES WITH GENOA--ARRIGO DELLA ROCCA.
The people themselves, driven to desperation after the departure of
Boccaneria, begged the assistance of Genoa. The republic accordingly
sent Tridano della Torre to the island. He mastered the barons, and
ruled seven full years vigorously and in peace.
The second man of mark from the family of Cinarca or Rocca, now appears
upon the stage, Arrigo della Rocca--young, energetic, impetuous, born
to rule, as stubborn as Giudice, equally inexhaustible in resource
and powerful in fight. His father, Guglielmo, had fought against the
Genoese, and had been slain. The son took up the contest. Unfortunate
at first, he left his native country and went to Spain, offering his
services to the House of Arragon, and inciting its then representatives
to lay claim to those rights which had already been acknowledged by the
Pope. Tridano had been murdered during Arrigo's absence, the seigniors
had rebelled, the island had split into two parties--the Caggionacci
and the Ristiagnacci, and a tumult of the bloodiest kind had broken
out.
In the year 1392, Arrigo della Rocca appeared in Corsica almost without
followers, and as if on a private adventure, but no sooner had he shown
himself, than the people flocked to his standard. Lionello Lomellino
and Aluigi Tortorino were then governors, two at once in those
unsettled times. They called a diet at Corte, counselled and exhorted.
Meanwhile, Arrigo had marched rapidly on Cinarca, routing the Genoese
troops wherever they came in their way; immediately he was at the gates
of Biguglia, the residence of the governors; he stormed the place,
assembled the people, and had himself proclaimed Count of Corsica. The
governors retired in dismay to Genoa, leaving the whole country in the
hands of the Corsicans, except Calvi, Bonifazio, and San Columbano.
Arrigo governed the island for four years without
molestation--energetically, impartially, but with cruelty. He caused
great numbers to be beheaded, not sparing even his own relations.
Perhaps some were imbittered by this severity--perhaps it was the
inveterate tendency to faction in the Corsican character, that now
began to manifest itself in a certain degree of disaffection.
The seigniors of Cape Corso rose first, with the countenance of Genoa;
but they were unsuccessful--with an iron arm Arrigo crushed every
revolt. He carried in his banner a griffin over the arms of Arragon, to
indicate that he had placed the island under the protection of Spain.
Genoa was embarrassed. She had fought many a year now for Corsica,
and had gained nothing. The critical position of her affairs tied the
hands of the Republic, and she seemed about to abandon Corsica. Five
_Nobili_, however, at this juncture, formed themselves into a sort of
joint-stock company, and prevailed upon the Senate to hand the island
over to them, the supremacy being still reserved for the Republic.
These were the Signori Magnera, Tortorino, Fiscone, Taruffo, and
Lomellino; they named their company "The Mahona," and each of them bore
the title of Governor of Corsica.
They appeared in the island at the head of a thousand men, and found
the party discontented with Arrigo, awaiting them. They effected
little; were, in fact, reduced to such extremity by their energetic
opponent, that they thought it necessary to come to terms with him.
Arrigo agreed to their proposals, but in a short time again took up
arms, finding himself trifled with; he defeated the Genoese _Nobili_
in a bloody battle, and cleared the island of the Mahona. A second
expedition which the Republic now sent was more successful. Arrigo was
compelled once more to quit Corsica.
He went a second time to Spain, and asked support from King John of
Arragon. John readily gave him two galleys and some soldiers, and after
an absence of two months the stubborn Corsican appeared once more on
his native soil. Zoaglia, the Genoese governor, was not a match for
him; Arrigo took him prisoner, and made himself master of the whole
island, with the exception of the fortresses of Calvi and Bonifazio.
This occurred in 1394. The Republic sent new commanders and new troops.
What the sword could not do, poison at last accomplished. Arrigo della
Rocca died suddenly in the year 1401. Just at this time Genoa yielded
to Charles VI. of France. The fortunes of Corsica seemed about to take
a new turn; this aspect of affairs, however, proved, in the meantime,
transitory. The French king named Lionello Lomellino feudal count of
the island. He is the same who was mentioned as a member of the Mahona,
and it is to him Corsica owes the founding of her largest city, Bastia,
to which the residence of the Governors was now removed from the
neighbouring Castle of Biguglia.
CHAPTER X.
VINCENTELLO D'ISTRIA.
A man of a similar order began now to take the place of Arrigo
della Rocca. Making their appearance constantly at similar political
junctures, these bold Corsicans bear an astonishing resemblance to
each other; they form an unbroken series of undaunted, indefatigable,
even tragic heroes, from Giudice della Rocca, to Pasquale Paoli and
Napoleon, and their history--if we except the last notable name--is
identical in its general character and final issue, as the struggle
of the island against the Genoese rule remains throughout centuries
one and the same. The commencement of the career of these men, who
all emerge from banishment, has each time a tinge of the romantic and
adventurous.
Vincentello d'Istria was a nephew of Arrigo's, son of one of his
sisters and Ghilfuccio a noble Corsican. Like his uncle, he had in
his youth attached himself to the court of Arragon, had entered into
the Arragonese service, and distinguished himself by splendid deeds
of arms. Later, having procured the command of some Arragonese ships,
he had conducted a successful corsair warfare against the Genoese,
and made his name the terror of the Mediterranean. He resolved to
take advantage of the favourable position of affairs, and attempt a
landing in his native island, where Count Lomellino had drawn odium
on himself by his harsh government, and Francesco della Rocca, natural
son of Arrigo, who ruled the Terra del Commune in the name of Genoa, as
vice-count, was vainly struggling with a formidable opposition.
Vincentello landed unexpectedly in Sagona, marched rapidly to Cinarca,
exactly as his uncle had done, took Biguglia, assembled the people,
and made himself Count of Corsica. Francesco della Rocca immediately
fell by the hand of an assassin; but his sister, Violanta--a woman of
masculine energy, took up arms, and made a brave resistance, though at
length obliged to yield. Bastia surrendered. Genoa now sent troops with
all speed; after a struggle of two years, Vincentello was compelled to
leave the island--a number of the selfish seigniors having made common
cause with Genoa.
In a short time, Vincentello returned with Arragonese soldiers, and
again he wrested the entire island from the Genoese, with the exception
of Calvi and Bonifazio. When he had succeeded thus far, Alfonso, the
young king of Arragon, more enterprising than his predecessors, and
having equipped a powerful fleet, prepared in his own person to make
good the presumed Arragonese rights on the island by force of arms. He
sailed from Sardinia in 1420, anchored before Calvi, and forced this
Genoese city to surrender. He then sailed to Bonifazio; and while the
Corsicans of his party laid siege to the impregnable fortress on the
land side, he himself attacked it from the sea. The siege of Bonifazio
is an episode of great interest in these tedious struggles, and was
rendered equally remarkable by the courage of the besiegers, and the
heroism of the besieged. The latter, true to Genoa to the last drop of
blood--themselves to a great extent of Genoese extraction--remained
immoveable as their own rocks; and neither hunger, pestilence, nor
the fire and sword of the Spaniards, broke their spirit during that
long and distressing blockade. Every attempt to storm the town was
unsuccessful; women, children, monks and priests, stood in arms upon
the walls, and fought beside the citizens. For months they continued
the struggle, expecting relief from Genoa, till the Spanish pride of
Alfonso was at length humbled, and he drew off, weary and ashamed,
leaving to Vincentello the prosecution of the siege. Relief came,
however, and delivered the exhausted town on the very eve of its fall.
Vincentello retreated; and as Calvi had again fallen into the hands
of the Genoese, the Republic had the support of both these strong
towns. King Alfonso made no further attempt to obtain possession of
Corsica. Vincentello, now reduced to his own resources, gradually
lost ground; the intrigues of Genoa effecting more than her arms, and
the dissensions among the seigniors rendering a general insurrection
impossible.
The Genoese party was specially strong on Cape Corso, where the
Signori da Mare were the most powerful family. With their help, and
that of the Caporali, who had degenerated from popular tribunes to
petty tyrants, and formed now a new order of nobility, Genoa forced
Vincentello to retire to his own seigniory of Cinarca. The brave
Corsican partly wrought his own fall: libertine as he was, he had
carried off a young girl from Biguglia; her friends took up arms, and
delivered the place into the hands of Simon da Mare. The unfortunate
Vincentello now resolved to have recourse once more to the House of
Arragon; but Zacharias Spinola captured the galley which was conveying
him to Sicily, and brought the dreaded enemy of Genoa a prisoner to the
Senate. Vincentello d'Istria was beheaded on the great stairs of the
Palace of Genoa. This was in the year 1434. "He was a glorious man,"
remarks the old Corsican chronicler.
CHAPTER XI.
THE BANK OF ST. GEORGE OF GENOA.
After the death of Vincentello, the seigniors contended with each other
for the title of Count of Corsica; Simon da Mare, Giudice d'Istria,
Renuccio da Leca, Paolo della Rocca, were the chief competitors; now
one, now another, assuming the designation. In Genoa, the Fregosi and
Adorni had split the Republic into two factions; and both families were
endeavouring to secure the possession of Corsica. This occasioned new
wars and new miseries. No respite, no year of jubilee, ever came for
this unhappy country. The entire population was constantly in arms,
attacking or defending. The island was revolt, war, conflagration,
blood, from one end to the other.
In the year 1443, some of the Corsicans offered the supremacy to
Pope Eugene IV., in the hope that the Church might perhaps be able to
restrain faction, and restore peace. The Pope sent his plenipotentiary
with troops; but this only increased the embroilment. The people
assembled themselves to a diet in Morosaglia, and chose a brave and
able man, Mariano da Gaggio, as their Lieutenant-general. Mariano first
directed his efforts successfully against the degenerate Caporali,
expelled them from their castles, destroyed many of these, and declared
their office abolished. The Caporali, on their side, called the Genoese
Adorno into the island. The people now placed themselves anew under
the protection of the Pope; and as the Fregosi had meanwhile gained
the upper hand in Genoa, and Nicholas V., a Genoese Pope, favoured
them, he put the government of Corsica into the hands of Ludovico Campo
Fregoso in the year 1449. In vain the people rose in insurrection under
Mariano. To increase the already boundless confusion, Jacob Imbisora,
an Arragonese viceroy, appeared, demanding subjection in the name of
Arragon.
The despairing people assembled again to a diet at Lago Benedetto, and
adopted the fatal resolution of placing themselves under the Bank of
St. George of Genoa. This society had been founded in the year 1346
by a company of capitalists, who lent the Republic money, and farmed
certain portions of the public revenue as guarantee for its repayment.
At the request of the Corsicans, the Genoese Republic ceded the island
to this Bank, and the Fregosi renounced their claims, receiving a sum
of money in compensation.
The Company of St. George, under the supremacy of the Senate, entered
upon the territory thus acquired in the year 1453, as upon an estate
from which they were to draw the highest returns possible.
But years elapsed before the Bank succeeded in establishing its
authority in the island. The seigniors beyond the mountains, in league
with Arragon, made a desperate resistance. The governors of the Bank
acted with reckless severity; many heads fell; various nobles went
into exile, and collected around Tomasin Fregoso, a man of a restless
disposition, whose remembrance of his family's claims upon Corsica had
been greatly quickened, since his uncle Lodovico had become Doge. He
came, accompanied by the exiles, routed the forces of the Bank, and
put himself in possession of a large portion of the island, after the
people had proclaimed him Count.
In 1464, Genoa fell into the hands of Francesco Sforza of Milan, and
a power with which Corsica had never had anything to do, began to
look upon the island as its own. The Corsicans, who preferred all
other masters to the Genoese, gladly took the oath of allegiance to
the Milanese general, Antonio Cotta, at the diet of Biguglia. But on
the same day a slight quarrel again kindled the flames of war over
all Corsica. Some peasants of Nebbio had fallen out with certain
retainers of the seigniors from beyond the mountains, and blood had
been shed. The Milanese commandant forthwith inflicted punishment on
the guilty parties. The haughty nobles, considering their seigniorial
rights infringed on, immediately mounted their horses and rode off to
their homes without saying a word. Preparations for war commenced. To
avert a new outbreak, the inhabitants of the Terra del Commune held a
diet, named Sambucuccio d'Alando--a descendant of the first Corsican
legislator--their vicegerent, and empowered him to use every possible
means to establish peace. Sambucuccio's dictatorship dismayed the
insurgents; they submitted to him and remained quiet. A second diet
despatched him and others as ambassadors to Milan, to lay the state of
matters before the Duke, and request the withdrawal of Cotta.
Cotta was replaced by the certainly less judicious Amelia, who
occasioned a war that lasted for years. In all these troubles the
democratic Terra del Commune appears as an island in the island,
surrounded by the seigniories; it remains always united, and true
to itself, and represents, it may be said, the Corsican people. For
almost two hundred years we have seen nothing decisive happen without
a popular Diet (_veduta_), and we have several times remarked that the
people themselves have elected their counts or vicegerents.
The war between the Corsicans and the Milanese was still raging with
great fury when Thomas Campo Fregoso again appeared upon the island,
trying his fortunes there once more. The Milanese sent him to Milan
a prisoner. Singular to relate, he returned from that city in the
year 1480, furnished with documents entitling him to have his claims
acknowledged. His government, and that of his son Janus, were so cruel,
that it was impossible the rule of the Fregoso family could last long,
though they had connected themselves by marriage with one of the most
influential men in the island, Giampolo da Leca.
The people, meanwhile, chose Renuccio da Leca as their leader, who
immediately addressed himself to the Prince of Piombino, Appian IV.,
and offered to place Corsica under his protection, provided he sent
sufficient troops to clear the island of all tyrants. How unhappy
the condition of this poor people must have been, seeking help thus
on every side, beseeching the aid now of one powerful despot, now of
another, adding by foreign tyrants to the number of its own! The Prince
of Piombino thought proper to see what could be done in Corsica, more
especially as part of Elba already belonged to him. He sent his brother
Gherardo di Montagnara with a small army. Gherardo was young, handsome,
of attractive manners, and he lived in a style of theatrical splendour.
He came sumptuously dressed, followed by a magnificent retinue, with
beautiful horses and dogs, with musicians and jugglers. It seemed as
if he were going to conquer the island to music. The Corsicans, who
had scarcely bread to eat, gazed on him in astonishment, as if he were
some supernatural visitant, conducted him to their popular assembly at
the Lago Benedetto, and amid great rejoicings, proclaimed him Count of
Corsica, in the year 1483. The Fregosi lost courage, and, despairing of
their sinking cause, sold their claim to the Genoese Bank for 2000 gold
scudi. The Bank now made vigorous preparations for war with Gherardo
and Renuccio. Renuccio lost a battle. This frightened the young Prince
of Piombino to such a degree, that he quitted the island with all the
haste possible, somewhat less theatrically than he had come to it.
Piombino desisted from all further attempts.
CHAPTER XII.
PATRIOTIC STRUGGLES--GIAMPOLO DA LECA--RENUCCIO DELLA ROCCA.
Two bold men now again rise in succession to oppose Genoa. Giampolo da
Leca had, as we have seen, become connected with the Fregosi. Although
these nobles had resigned their title in favour of the Bank, they were
exceedingly uneasy under the loss of influence they had sustained.
Janus, accordingly, without leaving Genoa, incited his relative to
revolt against the governor, Matias Fiesco. Giampolo rose. But beaten
and hard pressed by the troops of the Bank, he saw himself compelled,
after a vain attempt to obtain aid from Florence, to lay down his arms,
and to emigrate to Sardinia with wife, child, and friends, in the year
1487.
A year had scarcely passed, when he again appeared at the call of
his adherents. A second time unfortunate, he made his escape again
to Sardinia. The Genoese now punished the rebels with the greatest
severity--with death, banishment, and the confiscation of their
property. More and more fierce grew the Corsican hatred towards Genoa.
For ten years they nursed its smouldering glow. All this while Giampolo
remained in exile, meditating revenge--his watchful eye never lifted
from his oppressed and prostrate country. At last he came back. He had
neither money nor arms; four Corsicans and six Spaniards were all his
troops, and with these he landed. He was beloved by the people, for he
was noble, brave, and of great personal beauty. The Corsicans crowded
to him from Cinarca, from Vico, from Niolo, and from Morosaglia. He
was soon at the head of a body of seven thousand foot and two hundred
horse--a force which made the Bank of Genoa tremble for its power. It
accordingly despatched to the island Ambrosio Negri, an experienced
general. Negri, by intrigue and fair promises, contrived to detach a
part of Giampolo's followers, and particularly to draw over to himself
Renuccio della Rocca, a nobleman of activity and spirit. Giampolo, with
forces sensibly diminished, came to an engagement with the Genoese
commander at the Foce al Sorbo, and suffered a defeat, in which his
son Orlando was taken prisoner. He concluded a treaty with Negri, the
terms of which allowed him to leave the island unmolested. He returned
to Sardinia in 1501, with fifty Corsicans, there to waste his life in
inconsolable grief.
Giampolo's fall was mainly owing to Renuccio della Rocca. This man,
the head of the haughty family of Cinarca, saw that the Genoese Bank
had adopted a particular line of policy, and was pursuing it with
perseverance; he saw that it was resolved to crush completely and
for ever the power of the seigniors, more especially of those whose
lands lay beyond the mountains, and that his own turn would come.
Convinced of this, he suddenly rose in arms in the year 1502. The
contest was short, and the issue favourable for Genoa, whose governor
in the island was at that time one of the Doria family. All the
Dorias, as governors, distinguished themselves by their energy and by
their reckless cruelty, and it was to them alone that Genoa owed her
gratitude for the important service of at length crushing the Corsican
nobility. Nicolas Doria forced Renuccio to come to terms; and one of
the conditions imposed on the Corsican noble was that he and his family
were henceforth to reside in Genoa.
Giampolo was, still living in Sardinia, more than all other Corsican
patriots a source of continual anxiety to the Genoese, who made several
attempts to come to an amicable agreement with him. His son Orlando,
who had newly escaped to Rome from his prison in Genoa, sent pressing
solicitations from that city to his father to rouse himself from his
dumb and prostrate inactivity. But Giampolo continued to maintain his
heartbroken silence, and listened as little to the suggestions of his
son as to those of the Genoese.
Suddenly Renuccio disappeared from Genoa in the year 1504; he left wife
and child in the hands of his enemies, and went secretly to Sardinia
to seek an interview with the man whom he had plunged into misfortune.
Giampolo refused to see him. He was equally deaf to the entreaties of
the Corsicans, who all eagerly awaited his arrival. His own relations
had in the meantime murdered his son. The viceroy caught the murderers,
and was about to execute them, in order to show a favour to Giampolo.
But the generous man forgave them, and begged their liberation.
Renuccio had meanwhile gathered eighteen resolute men about him, and,
undeterred by the fate of his children, who had been thrown into a
dungeon immediately after his flight, he landed again in Corsica.
Nicolas Doria, however, lost no time in attacking him before the
insurrection became formidable, and he gained a victory. To daunt
Renuccio, he had his eldest son beheaded, and he threatened the
youngest with a like fate, but allowed himself to be moved by the boy's
entreaties and tears. The unhappy father, defeated at every point, fled
to Sardinia, and then to Arragon. Doria took ample revenge on all who
had shown him countenance, laid whole districts of the island waste,
burned the villages, and dispersed the inhabitants.
Renuccio della Rocca returned in the year 1507. This unyielding man
was entirely the reverse of the moody and sorrow-laden Giampolo. He
set foot on his native soil with only twenty companions. Another of
the Dorias met him this time, Andreas, afterwards the famous Doge, who
had served under his cousin Nicolò. The Corsican historian Filippini,
a Genoese partisan, admits the cruelties committed by Andreas during
this short campaign. He succeeded in speedily crushing the revolt; and
compelled Renuccio a second time to accept a safe conduct to Genoa.
When the Corsican arrived, the people would have torn him to pieces,
had not the French governor carried him off with all speed to his
castle.
Three years elapsed. Suddenly Renuccio again showed himself in Corsica.
He had escaped from Genoa, and after in vain imploring the aid of
the European princes, once more bidding defiance to fortune, he had
landed in his native country with eight friends. Some of his former
vassals received him in Freto, weeping, deeply moved by the accumulated
misfortunes of the man, and his unexampled intrepidity of soul. He
spoke to them, and conjured them once more to draw the sword. They were
silent, and went away. He remained some days in Freto, in concealment.
Nicolo Pinello, a captain of Genoese troops in Ajaccio, accidentally
passed by upon his horse. The sight of him proved so intolerable to
Renuccio, that he attacked him at night and killed him, took his horse,
and now showed himself in public. As soon us his presence in the island
became known, the soldiers of Ajaccio were sent out to capture him.
Renuccio fled into the hills, hunted like a bandit or wild beast. The
peasantry, who were put to the torture by his pursuers, as a means of
inducing them to discover his lurking-places, at last resolved to end
their own miseries and his life. In the month of May 1511, Renuccio
della Rocca was found miserably slain in the hills. He was one of the
stoutest hearts of the noble house of Cinarca. "They tell," says the
Corsican chronicler, "that Renuccio was true to himself till the last,
and that he showed no less heroism in his death than in his life; and
this is, of a truth, much to his honour, for a brave man should never
lose his nobleness of soul, even when fate brings him to an ignominious
end."
Giampolo had meanwhile gone to Rome, to ask the aid of the Pope, but,
unsuccessful in his exertions, he died there in the year 1515.
CHAPTER XIII.
STATE OF CORSICA UNDER THE BANK OF ST. GEORGE.
With Giampolo and Renuccio ended the resistance of the Corsican
seigniors. The noble families of the island decayed, their strong
keeps fell into ruin, and at present we hardly distinguish here and
there upon the rocks of Corsica the blackened walls of the castles of
Cinarca, Istria, Leca, and Ornano. But Genoa, in crushing one dreaded
foe, had raised against herself another far more formidable--the
Corsican people.
During this era of the iron rule of the Genoese Bank, many able
men emigrated, and sought for themselves name and fame in foreign
countries. They entered into military service, and became famous as
generals and Condottieri. Some were in the service of the Medici,
others in that of the Spozzi; or they were among the Venetians, in
Rome, with the Gonzagas, or with the French. Filippini names a long
array of them; among the rest, Guglielmo of Casabianca, Baptista of
Leca, Bartelemy of Vivario, with the surname of Telamon, Gasparini,
Ceccaldi, and Sampiero of Bastelica. Fortune was especially kind to a
Corsican of Bastia, named Arsano; turning renegade, he raised himself
to be King of Algiers, under the appellation of Lazzaro. This is
the more singular, that precisely at this time Corsica was suffering
dreadfully from the Moors, and the Bank had surrounded the whole island
with a girdle of beacons and watch-towers, and fortified Porto Vecchio
on the southern coast.
After the wars with Giampolo and Renuccio, the government of the Bank
was at first mild and paternal, and Corsica enjoyed the blessings of
order and peace. So says the Corsican chronicler.
The administration of public affairs, on which very slight alteration
was made after the Republic took it out of the hands of the Bank, was
as follows:--
The Bank sent a governor to Corsica yearly, who resided in Bastia. He
brought with him a vicario, or vicegerent, and a doctor of laws. The
entire executive was in his hands; he was the highest judicial and
military authority. He had his lieutenants (_luogotenenti_) in Calvi,
Algajola, San Fiorenzo, Ajaccio, Bonifazio, Sartena, Vico, Cervione,
and Corte. An appeal lay from them to the governor. All these officials
were changed once a year, or once in two years. To protect the people
from an oppressive exercise of power on their part, a Syndicate had
been established, before which a complaint against any particular
magistrate could be lodged. If the complaint was found to be well
grounded, the procedure of the magistrate concerned could be reversed,
and he himself punished with removal from his office. The governor
himself was responsible to the Syndics. They were six in number--three
from the people, and three from the aristocracy; and might be either
Corsicans or Genoese. In particular cases, commissaries came over,
charged with the duty of instituting inquiries.
Besides all this, the people exercised the important right of naming
the Dodici, or Council of Twelve; and they did this each time a change
took place in the highest magistracy. Strictly speaking, twelve were
chosen for the districts this side the mountains, six for those beyond.
The Dodici represented the people's voice in the deliberations of the
governor; and without their consent no law could be enacted, abolished,
or modified. One of their number went to Genoa, with the title of
Oratore, to act as representative of the Corsican people in the Senate
there.
The democratic basis of the constitution of the communes and _pievi_,
with their Fathers of the Community and their _podestàs_, was not
altered, and the popular assembly (_veduta_ or _consulta_) was still
permitted. The governor usually summoned it in Biguglia, when anything
of general importance was to be done with the consent of the people.
It is clear that these arrangements were of a democratic nature--that
they allowed the people free political movement, and a share in the
government; gave them a hold on the protection of the law, and checked
the arbitrary tendencies of officials. The Corsican people was,
therefore, well entitled to congratulate itself, and consider itself
favoured far beyond the other nations of Europe, if such laws were
really allowed their due force, and did not become an empty show. How
they did become an empty show, and how the Genoese rule passed into
an abominable despotism--Genoa, like Venice, committing the fatal
error of alienating her foreign provinces by a tyrannous, instead of
attaching them to herself by a benevolent treatment--we shall see in
the following chapters. For now Corsica brings forward her bravest
man, and one of the most remarkable characters of the century, against
Genoa.
CHAPTER XIV.
THE PATRIOT SAMPIERO.
Sampiero was born in Bastelica, a spot lying above Ajaccio, in one
of the wildest regions of the Corsican mountains, not of an ancient
family, but of unknown parents. Guglielmo, grandson of Vinciguerra, has
been named as his father; others say he was of the family of the Porri.
Like other Corsican youths, Sampiero had betaken himself to the
Continent, and foreign service, at an early age. We find him in the
service of the Cardinal Hippolyto de Medici, among the Black Bands at
Florence; and he was still young when the world was already talking
of his bold deeds, noble disposition, and great force of character.
He was the sword and shield of the Medici in their struggle with the
Pazzi. Thirsting for action and a wider field, he left his position
of Condottiere with these princes, and entered the army of Francis I.
of France. The king made him colonel of a Corsican regiment which he
had formed. Bayard became his friend, and Charles of Bourbon honoured
his impetuous bravery and military skill. "On a day of battle," said
Bourbon, "the Corsican colonel is worth ten thousand men." Sampiero
distinguished himself on many fields and before many fortresses, and
his reputation was equally great with friend and foe.
Entirely devoted to the interests of his master, who was now
prosecuting the war with Spain, he had still ear and eye for his
native island, from which voices reached him now and then that moved
him deeply. He came to Corsica in the year 1547, to take a wife from
among his own countrywomen. He chose a daughter of one of the oldest
houses beyond the mountains--the house of Ornano. Though he was himself
without ancestry, Sampiero's fame and well-known manly worth were a
patent of nobility which Francesco Ornano could not despise; and he
gave him the hand of his only daughter, the beautiful Vannina, the
heiress of Ornano.
No sooner did the governor of the Genoese Bank learn the presence of
Sampiero--in whom he foreboded an implacable foe--within the bounds
of his authority, than, in defiance of all justice, he had him seized
and thrown into prison. Francesco Ornano, fearing for his son-in-law's
life, hastened to Genoa to the French ambassador. The latter instantly
demanded Sampiero's liberation. The demand was complied with; but the
insult done him was now for Sampiero another and a personal spur to
give relief in action to his long-cherished hatred of Genoa, and ardent
wish to free his native country.
The posture of continental affairs, the war between France and Charles
V., soon gave him opportunity.
Henry II., husband of Catherine de Medici, deeply involved in Italian
politics, in active war with the Emperor, and in alliance with the
Turks, who were on the point of sending a fleet into the Western
Mediterranean, agreed to the proposal of an enterprise against Corsica.
A double end seemed attainable by this: for first, in threatening
Corsica, Genoa was menaced; and secondly, as the Republic, since
Andreas Doria had freed her from the French yoke, had become the
close ally of Charles V., carrying the war into Corsica was carrying
it on against the Emperor himself. And besides, the island offered an
excellent position in the Mediterranean, and a basis for the operations
of the combined French and Turkish fleets. Marshal Thermes, therefore,
at that time in Italy, and besieging Siena, received orders to prepare
for the conquest of Corsica.
He held a council of war in Castiglione. Sampiero was overjoyed at the
turn affairs had taken; all his wishes were centred in the liberation
of his country. He represented to Thermes the necessary and important
consequences of the undertaking, and it was forthwith set on foot.
Its success could not be doubted. The French only needed to land,
and the Corsican people would that moment rise in arms. The hatred
of the rule of the Genoese merchants had reached, since the fall of
Renuccio, the utmost pitch of intensity; and it had its ground not
merely in the ineradicable passion of the people for liberty, but in
the actual state of affairs in the island. For, as soon as the Bank
saw its power secured, it began to rule despotically. The Corsicans
had been stripped of all their political rights: they had lost their
Syndicate, the Dodici, their old communal magistracies; justice was
venal, murder permitted--at least the murderer was protected in Genoa,
and furnished with letters-patent for his personal safety. The horrors
of the Vendetta, therefore, of the implacable revenge that insists
on blood for blood, took root firm and fast. All writers on Corsican
history are unanimous, that the demoralization of the courts of justice
was the deepest wound which the Bank of Genoa inflicted on Corsica.
Sampiero had sent a Corsican, named Altobello de Gentili, into the
island, to ascertain the state of the popular feeling; his letters, and
the hope of his coming kindled the wildest joy; the people trembled
with eagerness for the arrival of the fleet. Thermes, and Admiral
Paulin, whose squadron had effected a junction with the Turkish fleet
at Elba, now sailed for Corsica in August 1553. The brave Pietro
Strozzi and his company was with them, though not long; Sampiero, the
hope of the Corsicans, was with them; Johann Ornano, Rafael Gentili,
Altobello, and other exiles, all burning for revenge, and impatient to
drench their swords in Genoese blood.
They landed on the Renella near Bastia. Scarcely had Sampiero shown
himself on the city walls, which the invaders ascended by means
of scaling ladders, when the people threw open the gates. Bastia
surrendered. Without delay they proceeded to reduce the other strong
towns, and the interior. Paulin anchored before Calvi, the Turk Dragut
before Bonifazio, Thermes marched on San Fiorenzo, Sampiero on Corte,
the most important of the inland fortresses. Here too he had no sooner
shown himself than the gates were opened. The Genoese fled in every
direction, the cause of liberty was triumphant throughout the island;
only Ajaccio, Bonifazio, and Calvi, trusting to the natural strength
of their situation, still held out. Neither Paulin from the sea, nor
Sampiero from the land, could make any impression on Calvi. The siege
was raised, and Sampiero hastened to Ajaccio. The Genoese under Lamba
Doria prepared for an obstinate defence, but the people opened the
gates to their deliverer. The houses of the Genoese were plundered;
yet, even here, in the case of their country's enemies, the Corsicans
showed how sacred in their eyes were the natural laws of generosity and
hospitality; many Genoese, fleeing to the villages for an asylum, found
shelter with their foes. Francesco Ornano took Lamba Doria into his own
house.
CHAPTER XV.
SAMPIERO--FRANCE AND CORSICA.
Meanwhile the Turk was besieging Bonifazio with furious vigour,
ravaging at the same time the entire surrounding country. Dragut
was provoked by the heroic resistance of the inhabitants, who showed
themselves worthy descendants of those earlier Bonifazians that so
bravely held the town against Alfonso of Arragon. Night and day,
despite of hunger and weariness, they manned the walls, successfully
repelling all attacks, the women showing equal courage with the
men. Sampiero came to the assistance of the Turks; the assaults of
the besiegers continued without intermission, but the town remained
steadfast. The Bonifazians were in hopes of relief, hourly expecting
Cattaciolo, one of their fellow-citizens, from Genoa. The messenger
came, bearing news of approaching succours; but he fell into the hands
of the French. They made a traitor of him, inducing him to carry forged
letters into the city, which advised the commandant to give up all hope
of being relieved. He accordingly concluded a treaty, and surrendered
the unconquered town under the condition that the garrison should be
allowed to embark for Genoa with military honours. The brave defenders
had scarcely left the protection of their walls, when the barbarous
Turk, trampling under foot at once his oath and common humanity, fell
upon them, and began to cut them in pieces. Sampiero with difficulty
rescued all that it was still possible to rescue. Not content with this
revenge, Dragut demanded to be allowed to plunder the city, and, when
this was refused, a large sum in compensation, which Thermes could not
pay, but promised to pay. Dragut, exasperated, instantly embarked, and
set sail for Asia--he had been corrupted by Genoese gold.
After the fall of Bonifazio, Genoa had not a foot of land left in
Corsica, except the "ever-faithful" Calvi. No time was to be lost,
therefore, if the island was not to be entirely relinquished. The
Emperor had promised help, and placed some thousands of Germans and
Spaniards at the disposal of the Genoese, and Cosmo de Medici sent an
auxiliary corps. A very considerable force had thus been collected,
and, to put success beyond question, the leadership of the expedition
was intrusted to their most celebrated general, Andreas Doria, while
Agostino Spinola was made second in command.
Andreas Doria was at that time in his eighty-sixth year; but the aspect
of affairs seemed so critical, that the old man could not but comply
with the call of his fellow-citizens. He received the banner of the
enterprise in the Cathedral of Genoa, from the senators, protectors of
the Bank, the clergy, and the people.
On the 20th November 1553, Doria landed in the Gulf of San Fiorenzo,
and, in a short time, the star of Genoa was once more in the ascendant.
San Fiorenzo, which had been strongly fortified by Thermes, fell;
Bastia surrendered; the French gave way on every side. Sampiero had
about this time, in consequence of a quarrel with Thermes, been obliged
to proceed to the French court; but after putting his calumniators
there to silence, he returned in higher credit than before, and as
the alone heart and soul of the war, which the incapable Thermes had
proved himself unfit to conduct. He was indefatigable in attack, in
resistance, in guerilla warfare. Spinola met with a sharp repulse on
the field of Golo, but a wound which Sampiero received in the fight
rendering him for some time inactive, the Corsicans suffered a bloody
defeat at Morosaglia. Sampiero now gave his wound no more time to heal;
he again appeared on the field, and defeated the Spaniards and Germans
in the battle of Col di Tenda, in the year 1554.
The war was carried on with unabated fury for five years. Corsica
seemed to be certain of the perpetual protection of France, and in
general to regard herself as an independently organized section of that
kingdom. Francis II. had named Jourdan Orsini his viceroy, and the
latter, at a general diet, had, in the name of his king, pronounced
Corsica incorporated with France, declaring that it was now for all
time impossible to separate the island from the French crown--that
the one could be abandoned only with the other. The fate of Corsica
seemed, therefore, already linked to the French monarchy, and the
island to be detached from the general body of the Italian states, to
which it naturally belongs. But scarcely had the king made the solemn
announcement above referred to, when the treaty of Cateau Cambresis,
in the year 1559, shattered at a single blow all the hopes of the
Corsicans.
France concluded a peace with Philip of Spain and his allies, and
engaged to surrender Corsica to the Genoese. The French, accordingly,
immediately put all the places they had garrisoned into the hands
of Genoa, and embarked their troops. A desperate struggle had been
maintained for six years to no purpose, diplomacy now lightly gamed
away the earnings of that long war's bloody toil, and the Corsican saw
himself hurled back into his old misery, and abandoned, defenceless, to
Genoese vengeance, by a rag of paper, a pen-and-ink peace. This breach
of faith was a crushing blow, and extorted from the country a universal
cry of despair, but it was not listened to.
CHAPTER XVI.
SAMPIERO IN EXILE--HIS WIFE VANNINA.
It was now that Sampiero began to show himself in all his greatness;
for the man must be admitted to be really great whom adversity does not
bend, but who gathers double strength from misfortune. He had quitted
Corsica as an outlaw. The peace had taken the sword out of his hand;
the island, ravaged and desolate from end to end, could not venture a
new struggle on its own resources--a new war needed fresh support from
a foreign power. For four years Sampiero wandered over Europe seeking
help at its most distant courts; he travelled to France to Catherine,
hoping to find her mindful of old services that he had done the house
of Medici; he went to Navarre; to the Duke of Florence; to the Fregosi;
to one Italian court after another; he sailed to Algiers to Barbarossa;
he hastened to Constantinople to the Sultan Soliman. His stern,
imposing demeanour, the emphatic sincerity of his speech, his powerful
intellect, his glowing patriotism, everywhere commanded admiration and
respect, among the barbarians not less than among the Christians; but
they comforted him with vain hopes and empty promises.
While Sampiero was thus wandering with unwearied perseverance from
court to court, inciting the princes to an enterprise in behalf of
Corsica, Genoa had not lost sight of him; Genoa was alarmed to think
what might one day be the result of his exertions. It was clearly
necessary, by some means or other, to cripple once for all the dreaded
arm of Sampiero. Poison and assassination, it is said, had been tried,
but had failed. It was resolved to crush his spirit, by bringing his
natural affection as a father and a husband into conflict with his
passionate love of country. It was resolved to break his heart.
Sampiero's wife Vannina lived in her own house at Marseilles, under
the protection of France. She had her youngest son, Francesco, beside
her; the elder, Alfonso, was at the court of Catherine. The Genoese
surrounded her with their agents and spies. It was their aim, and it
was important to them, to allure Sampiero's wife and child to Genoa.
To effect this, they employed a certain Michael Angelo Ombrone, who
had been tutor to the young sons of Sampiero, and enjoyed his entire
confidence; a cunning villain of the name of Agosto Bazzicaluga was
another of their tools. Vannina was of a susceptible and credulous
nature, proud of the ancient name of Ornano. These Genoese traitors
represented to her the fate that necessarily awaited the children of
her proscribed husband. Heirs of their father's outlawry, robbed of the
seigniory of their renowned ancestors, poor--their very lives not safe,
what might they not come to? They pictured to her alarmed imagination
these, her beloved children, in the wretchedness of exile, eating the
bread of dependence, or what was worse, if they trod in the footsteps
of their father, hunted in the mountains, at last captured, and loaded
with the chains of galley-slaves.
Vannina was deeply moved--her fidelity began to waver; the thought
of going to Genoa grew gradually less foreign to her--less and less
repulsive. There, said Ombrone and Bazzicaluga, they will restore to
your children the seigniory of Ornano, and your own gentle persuasions
will at length succeed in reconciling even Sampiero with the Republic.
The poor mother's heart was not proof against this. Vannina was
thoroughly a woman; her natural feeling at last spoke with imperious
decision, refusing to comprehend or sympathize with the grand, rugged,
terrible character of her husband, who only lived because he loved his
country, and hated its oppressors; and who nourished with his own being
the all-consuming fire of his sole passion--remorselessly flinging in
all his other possessions like faggots to feed the flames. Her blinded
heart extorted from Vannina the resolution to go to Genoa. One day, she
said to herself, we shall all be happy, peaceful, and reconciled.
Sampiero was in Algiers, where the bold renegade Barbarossa, as Sultan
of the country, had received him with signal marks of respect, when
a ship arrived from Marseilles, and brought the tidings that his wife
was on the point of escaping to Genoa with his boy. When Sampiero began
to comprehend the possibility of this flight, his first thought was to
throw himself instantly into the vessel, and hasten to Marseilles; he
became calmer, and bade his noble friend, Antonio of San Fiorenzo, go
instead, and prevent the escape--if prevention were still possible. He
himself, restraining his sorrow within his innermost heart, remained,
negotiated with Barbarossa about an expedition against Genoa, and
subsequently sailed for Constantinople, to try what could be effected
with the Sultan, not till then proposing to return to Marseilles to
ascertain the position of his private affairs.
Antonio of San Fiorenzo had made all possible haste upon his mission.
Rushing into Vannina's house, he found it empty and silent. She
was away with her child, and Ombrone, and Bazzicaluga, in a Genoese
ship, secretly, the day before. Hurriedly Antonio collected friends,
Corsicans, armed men, threw himself into a brigantine, and made all
sail in the direction which the fugitives ought to have taken. He
sighted the Genoese vessel off Antibes, and signalled for her to
shorten sail. When Vannina saw that she was pursued, knowing too well
who her pursuers were likely to be, in an agony of terror she begged
to be put ashore, scarcely knowing what she did. But Antonio reached
her as she landed, and took possession of her person in the name of
Sampiero and the King of France.
He brought her to the house of the Bishop of Antibes, that the lady,
quite prostrate with grief, might enjoy the consolations of religion,
and might have a secure asylum in the dwelling of a priest. Horrible
thoughts, to which he gave no expression, made this advisable. But the
Bishop of Antibes was afraid of the responsibility he might incur,
and refusing to run any risk, he gave Vannina into the hands of the
Parliament of Aix. The Parliament declared its readiness to take her
under its protection, and to permit none, whoever he might be, to do
her violence. But Vannina wished nothing of all this, and declined
the offer. She was, she said, Sampiero's wife, and whatever sentence
her husband might pronounce on her, to that sentence she would submit.
The guilty consciousness of her fatal step lay heavy on her heart, and
while she wept bitterest tears of repentance, she imposed on herself a
noble and silent resignation to the consequences.
And now Sampiero, leaving the Turkish court, where Soliman had for
a while wonderingly entertained the famous Corsican, returned to
Marseilles, giving himself up to his own personal anxieties. At
Marseilles, he found Antonio, who related to him what had occurred, and
endeavoured to restrain his friend's gathering wrath. One of Sampiero's
relations, Pier Giovanni of Calvi, let fall the imprudent remark that
he had long foreseen Vannina's flight. "And you concealed what you
foresaw?" cried Sampiero, and stabbed him dead with a single thrust of
his dagger. He threw himself on horseback, and rode in furious haste to
Aix, where his trembling wife waited for him in the castle of Zaisi.
Antonio hurried after him, agonized with the fear that all efforts of
his to avert some dreadful catastrophe might be unavailing.
Sampiero waited beneath the windows of the castle till morning. He
then went to his wife, and took her away with him to Marseilles. No
one could read his silent purposings in his stern face. As he entered
his house with her, and saw it standing desolate and empty, the whole
significance of the affront--the full consciousness of her treason and
its possible results, sank upon his heart; once more the intolerable
thought shot through him that it was his own wife who had basely sold
herself and his child into the detested hands of his country's enemies;
the demon of phrenzy took possession of his soul, and he slew her with
his own hand.
Sampiero, says the Corsican historian, loved his wife passionately, but
as a Corsican--that is, to the last Vendetta.
He buried his dead in the Church of St. Francis, and did not spare
funereal pomp. He then went to show himself at the court of Paris. This
occurred in the year 1562.
CHAPTER XVII.
RETURN OF SAMPIERO--STEPHEN DORIA.
Sampiero was coldly received at the French court; the courtiers
whispered, avoided him, sneered at him from behind their virtuous mask.
Sampiero was not the man to be dismayed by courtiers, nor was the court
of Catherine de Medici a tribunal before which the fearful deed of one
of the most remarkable men of his time could be tried. Catherine and
Henry II. forgot that Sampiero had murdered his wife, but they would
do no more for Corsica than willingly look on while it was freed by the
exertions of others.
Now that he had done all that was possible as a diplomatist, and saw no
prospect of foreign aid, Sampiero fell back upon himself, and resolved
to trust to his own and his people's energies. He accordingly wrote
to his friends in Corsica that he would come to free his country or
die. "It lies with us now," he said, "to make a last effort to attain
the happiness and glory of complete freedom. We have applied to the
cabinets of France, of Navarre, and of Constantinople; but if we do
not take up arms till the day when the aid of France or Tuscany shall
be with us in the fight, there is a long period of oppression yet in
store for our country. And at any rate, would a national independence
obtained with the assistance of foreigners be a prize worth contending
for? Did the Greeks seek help of their neighbours to rescue their
independence from the yoke of the Persians? The Italian Republics are
recent examples of what the strong will of a people can do, combined
with the love of country. Doria could free his native city from the
oppression of a tyrannous aristocracy; shall we forbear to rise till
the soldiers of the King of Navarre come to fight in our ranks?"
On the 12th of June 1564, Sampiero landed in the Gulf of Valinco, with
a band of twenty Corsicans, and five-and-twenty Frenchmen. He sank the
galley which had brought him. When he was asked why he had done so, and
where he would find refuge if the Genoese were now suddenly to attack
him, he answered, "In my sword!" He assaulted the castle of Istria
with this handful of men, took it, and marched rapidly upon Corte. The
Genoese drew out to meet him before the walls of the town, with a much
superior force, as Sampiero had still not above a hundred men. But such
was the terror inspired by his mere name, that he no sooner appeared in
sight than they fled without drawing sword. Corte opened its gates, and
Sampiero had thus gained one important position. The Terra del Commune
immediately made common cause with him.
Sampiero now advanced on Vescovato, the richest district of the
island, on the slopes of the mountains where they sink towards the
beautiful plain of Mariana. The people of Vescovato assembled at
his approach, alarmed for the safety of their harvest, which was
threatened by this new storm of war. They were urgently counselled by
the Archdeacon Filippini, the Corsican historian, to remain neutral,
and take no notice of Sampiero, whatever he might do. When Sampiero
entered Vescovato, he found it ominously quiet, and the people all
within their houses; at last, yielding to curiosity or sympathy, they
came out. Sampiero spoke to them, accusing them, as he justly might,
of a want of patriotism. His words made a deep impression. Offers of
entertainment in some of their houses were made; but Sampiero punished
the inhabitants of Vescovato with his contempt, and passed the night in
the open air.
The place became nevertheless the scene of a bloody battle. Nicolas
Negri led his Genoese against it, as a position held by Sampiero. It
was a murderous struggle; the more so that as the number engaged on
both sides was comparatively small, it was mainly a series of single
combats. Corsicans, too, were here fighting against Corsicans--for
a company of the islanders had remained in the service of Genoa.
These fell back, however, when Sampiero upbraided them for fighting
against their country. Victory was inclining to the side of Genoa--for
Bruschino, one of the bravest of the Corsican captains, had fallen,
when Sampiero, rallying his men for one last effort, succeeded in
finally repulsing the Genoese, who fled in disorder towards Bastia.
The victory of Vescovato brought new additions to the forces of
Sampiero, and another at Caccia, in which Nicolas Negri was among the
killed, spread the insurrection through the whole interior. Sampiero
now hoped to be assisted in earnest by Tuscany, and even by the Turks;
for in winning battle after battle over the Spaniards and Genoese, with
such inconsiderable means at his command, he had shown what Corsican
patriotism might do if it were supported.
On the death of Negri, the Genoese without delay despatched their
best general to the island, in the person of Stephen Doria, whose
bravery, skill, and unscrupulous severity rendered him worthy of
the name. He was at the head of a force of four thousand German and
Italian mercenaries. The war broke out, therefore, with fresh fury.
The Corsicans suffered some reverses; but the Genoese, weakened by
important defeats, were once more thrown back upon Bastia. Doria had
made an attack on Bastelica, Sampiero's birthplace, had laid it in
ashes, and made the patriot's house level with the ground. Houses
and property were little to the man whose own hand had sacrificed
his wife to his country; noticeable, however, is this Genoese policy
of constantly bringing the patriotism of the Corsicans into tragic
conflict with their personal affections. What they tried in vain with
Sampiero, succeeded with Campocasso--a man of unusual heroism, of an
influential family of old Caporali. His mother had been seized and
placed in confinement. Her son did not hesitate a moment--he threw away
his sword, and hastened into the Genoese camp to save his mother from
the torture. He left it again when they proposed to him to become the
murderer of Sampiero, and remained quiet at home. Powerful friends were
becoming fewer and fewer round Sampiero; now that Bruschino had fallen,
Campocasso gone over to the enemy, and the brave Napoleon of Santa
Lucia, the first of his name who distinguished himself as a military
leader, had suffered a severe defeat.
If the whole hatred of the Corsicans and Genoese could be put into two
words, these two are Sampiero and Doria. Both names, suggestive of the
deadliest personal feud, at the same time completely represent their
respective nationalities. Stephen Doria exceeded all his predecessors
in cruelty. He had sworn to annihilate the Corsican people. His openly
expressed opinions are these:--"When the Athenians became masters of
the principal town in Melos, after it had held out for seven months,
they put all the inhabitants above fourteen years of age to death, and
sent a colony to people the place anew, and keep it in obedience. Why
do we not imitate this example? Is it because the Corsicans deserve
punishment less than those ancient rebels? The Athenians saw in these
terrible chastisements the means of conquering the Peloponnese, the
whole of Greece, Africa, and Sicily. By putting all their enemies to
the sword, they restored the reputation and terror of their arms. It
will be said that this procedure is contrary to the law of nations,
to humanity, to the progress of civilisation. What does it matter,
provided we only make ourselves feared?--that is all I ask. I care
more for what Genoa says than for the judgment of posterity, which has
no terrors for me. This empty word posterity checks none but the weak
and irresolute. Our interest is to extend on every side the circle of
conquered country, and to take from the insurgents everything that
can support a war. Now, I see but two ways of doing this--first,
by destroying the crops, and secondly, by burning the villages, and
pulling down the towers in which they fortify themselves when they dare
not venture into the field."
The advice of Doria sufficiently shows how fierce the Genoese hatred of
this indomitable people had become, and indicates but too plainly the
unspeakable miseries the Corsicans had to endure. Stephen Doria laid
half the island desolate with fire and sword; and Sampiero was still
unconquered. The Corsican patriot had held an assembly of the people
in Bozio to strengthen the general cause by the adoption of suitable
measures, to regulate anew the council of the Dodici and the other
popular magistracies, and to organize, if possible, an insurrection of
the entire people. Sampiero was not a mere soldier, he was a far-seeing
statesman. He wished to give his country, with its independence, a
free republican constitution, founded on the ancient enactments of
Sambucuccio of Alando. He wished to draw, from the situation of the
island, from its forests and its products in general, such advantages
as might enable it to become a naval power; he wished to make Corsica,
in alliance with France, powerful and formidable, as Rhodes and Tyre
had once been. Sampiero did not aim at the title of Count of Corsica;
he was the first who was called Father of his country. The times of the
seigniors were past.
He sent messengers to the continental courts, particularly to
France, asking assistance; but the Corsicans were left to their fate.
Antonio Padovano returned from France empty-handed; he only brought
Sampiero's young son Alfonso, ten thousand dollars in money, and
thirteen standards with the inscription--_Pugna pro patria_. This
was, nevertheless, enough to raise the spirits of the Corsicans; and
the standards, which Sampiero divided among the captains, became the
occasion of envy and dangerous heartburnings.
Here are two letters of Sampiero's.
To Catherine of France.--"Our affairs have hitherto been prosperous.
I can assure your Majesty, that unless the enemy had received both
secret and open help from the Catholic King of Spain, at first
twenty-two galleys and four ships, with a great number of Spaniards,
we should have reduced them to such extremity, that by this time they
would have been no longer able to maintain a footing in the island.
Nevertheless, and come what will, we will never abandon the resolution
we have taken, to die sooner than acknowledge in any way whatever the
supremacy of the Republic. I pray of your Majesty, therefore, in these
circumstances, not to forget my devotion to your person, and that of my
country to France. If his Catholic Majesty shows himself so friendly to
the Genoese, who are, even without him, so formidable to us--a people
forsaken by all the world--will your Majesty suffer us to be destroyed
by our cruel foes?"
To the Duke of Parma.--"Although we should become tributary to the
Ottoman Porte, and thus run the risk of offending all the Princes
of Christendom, nevertheless this is our unalterable resolution--A
hundred times rather the Turks than the supremacy of the Republic.
France herself has not respected the treaty, which, as they said, was
to be the guarantee of our rights and the end of our miseries. If I
take the liberty of troubling you with the affairs of the island, it
is that your Highness may, if need be, take our part at the court of
Rome against the attacks of our enemies. I desire that my words may at
least remain a solemn protest against the indifference of the Catholic
Princes, and an appeal to the Divine justice."
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE DEATH OF SAMPIERO.
Once more ambassadors set out for France, five in number; but the
Genoese intercepted them off the coast. Three leapt into the sea to
save themselves by swimming, one of whom was drowned; the two who
were captured were first put to the torture, and then executed. The
war assumed the frightful character of a merciless Vendetta on both
sides. Doria, however, effected nothing. Sampiero defeated him again
and again; and at last, in the passes of Luminanda, almost annihilated
the Genoese forces. It required the utmost exertion of Doria's
great skill and personal bravery to extricate himself on the latter
occasion. He arrived in San Fiorenzo, bleeding, exhausted, and in
despair, and soon after left the island. The Republic replaced him by
Vivaldi, and afterwards by the artful and intriguing Fornari; but the
Genoese had lost all hope of crushing Sampiero by war and open force.
Against this man, who had come to the island as an outlaw with a few
outlawed followers, they had gradually sent their whole force into
the field--their own and a Spanish fleet, their mercenaries, Germans,
fifteen thousand Spaniards, their greatest generals, Doria, Centurione,
and Spinola; yet, the same Genoa that had conquered Pisa and Venice had
proved unable to subdue a poor people, forsaken by the whole world, who
came into the ranks of battle starving, in rags, unshod, badly armed,
and who, when they returned home, found nothing but the ashes of their
villages.
It was therefore decided that Sampiero must be murdered.
Dissensions, fomented by the Genoese, had long existed between him
and the descendants of the old seigniors. Some, like Hercules of
Istria, had deserted him from lust of Genoese gold, or because their
pride revolted at the thought of obeying a man who had risen from the
dust. Others had a Vendetta with Sampiero; they had a debt of blood
to exact from him. These were the nobles of the Ornano family, three
brothers--Antonio, Francesco, and Michael Angelo, cousins of Vannina.
Genoa had won them with gold, and the promise of the seigniory of
Ornano, of which Vannina's children were the rightful heirs. The
Ornanos, again, gained the monk Ambrosius of Bastelica, and Sampiero's
own servant Vittolo, a trusted follower, with whose help it was agreed
to take Sampiero in an ambuscade. The governor, Fornari, approved of
the plan, and committed its execution to Rafael Giustiniani.
Sampiero was in Vico when the monk brought him forged letters, urgently
requesting him to come to Rocca, where a rebellion, it was said, had
broken out against the popular cause. Sampiero instantly despatched
Vittolo with twenty horse to Cavro, and himself followed soon after.
He was accompanied by his son Alfonso, Andrea de' Gentili, Antonio
Pietro of Corte, and Battista da Pietra. Vittolo, in the meantime,
instructed the brothers Ornano, and Giustiniani, that Sampiero would
pass through the defile of Cavro; on receiving which intelligence, they
immediately set out for the spot indicated with a considerable force
of foot and horse, and formed the ambuscade. Sampiero and his little
band were riding unsuspectingly through the pass, when they suddenly
found themselves assailed on every side, and the defile swarming
with armed men. He saw that his hour was come. Yielding now to those
impulses of natural affection which he had once so signally disowned,
he ordered his son Alfonso to leave him, to flee, and save himself
for his country. The son obeyed, and escaped. Most of his friends had
fallen bravely fighting by his side, when Sampiero rushed into the
_mêlée_, to hew his way through if it were possible. The day was just
dawning. The three Ornanos had kept their eyes constantly upon him, at
first afraid to assail the terrible man; but at length, spurred on by
revenge, they pressed in upon him, some Genoese soldiery at their back.
Sampiero fought desperately. He had thrown himself upon Antonio Ornano,
and wounded him with a pistol-shot in the throat. But his carbine
missed fire; Vittolo, in loading it, had put in the bullet first.
Sampiero's face was streaming with blood; freeing his eyes from it with
his left, his right hand still grasped his sword, and kept all at bay,
when Vittolo, from behind, shot him through the back, and he fell. The
Ornanos now rushed in upon the dying man, and finished their work. They
cut off Sampiero's head, and carried it to the Governor.
It was on the 17th of January in the year 1567 that Sampiero fell.
He had reached his sixty-ninth year, his vigour unimpaired by age or
military toil. The stern grandeur of his soul, and his pure and heroic
patriotism, have made his name immortal. He was great in the field,
inexhaustible in council; owing all to his own extraordinary nature,
without ancestry, he inherited nothing from fortune, which usually
favours the _parvenu_, but from misfortune everything, and he yielded,
like Viriathus, only to the assassin. He has shown, by his elevating
example, what a noble man can do, when he remains unyieldingly true to
a great passion.
Sampiero was above the middle height, of proud and martial bearing,
dark and stern, with black curly hair and beard. His eye was piercing,
his words few, firm, and impressive. Though a son of nature, and
without education, he possessed acute perceptions and unerring
judgment. His friends accused him of seeking the sovereignty of his
native island; he sought only its freedom. He lived as simply as a
shepherd, wore the woollen blouse of his country, and slept on the
naked earth. He had lived at the most luxurious courts of his time, at
those of Florence and Versailles, but he had contracted none of their
hollowness of principle, or corrupt morality. The rugged patriot could
murder his wife because she had betrayed herself and her child to her
country's enemies, but he knew nothing of those crimes that pervert
nature, and those principles that would refine the vile abuse into
a philosophy of life. He was simple, rugged, and grand, headlong and
terrible in anger, a whole man, and fashioned in the mightiest mould of
primitive nature.
CHAPTER XIX.
SAMPIERO'S SON, ALFONSO--TREATY WITH GENOA.
At the news of Sampiero's fall, the bells were rung in Genoa, and the
city was illuminated. The murderers quarrelled disgracefully over their
Judas-hire; that of Vittolo amounted to one hundred and fifty gold
scudi.
Sorrow and dismay fell upon the Corsican nation; its father was slain.
The people assembled in Orezza; three thousand armed men, many weeping,
all profoundly sad, filled the square before the church. Leonardo of
Casanova, Sampiero's friend and fellow-soldier, broke the silence. He
was about to pronounce the patriot's funeral oration.
This man was at the time labouring under the severest personal
affliction. Unheard-of misfortunes had overtaken him. He had shortly
before escaped from prison, by the aid of a heroic youth, his own son.
Leonardo had been made prisoner by the Genoese, who had thrown him into
a dungeon in Bastia. His son, Antonio, meditated plans of rescue night
and day. Disguised in the dress of the woman who brought the prisoners
their food, he made his way into his father's cell. He conjured his
father to make his escape and leave him behind; though they should put
him to death, he said, he was but a stripling, and his death would
do him honour, while it preserved his father's arm and wisdom for
his country; their duty as patriots pointed out this course. Long and
terrible was the struggle in the father's mind. At last he saw that he
ought to do as his son had said; he tore himself from his arms, and,
wrapped in the female dress, passed safely out. When the youth was
discovered, he gave himself up without resistance, proud and happy.
They led him to the governor, and, at his command, he was hung from the
window of his father's castle of Fiziani.
Leonardo, the generous victim's fate written in stern characters on his
face, rose now like a prophet before the assembled people--
"Slaves weep," he said, "free men avenge themselves! No weak-spirited
lamenting! Our mountains should re-echo nothing but shouts of war. Let
us show, by the vigour of our measures, that he is not all dead. Has he
not left us the example of his life? The Fornari and the Vittoli cannot
rob us of that. It has escaped their ambuscades and their treacherous
balls. Why did he cry to his son, Save thyself? Doubtless that there
might still remain a hero for our country, a head for our soldiers, a
dreaded foe for the Genoese. Yes, countrymen, Sampiero has left to his
murderers the stain of his death, and to the young Alfonso the duty of
vengeance. Let us aid in accomplishing the noble work. Close the ranks!
The spirit of the father returns to us in the son. I know the youth.
He is worthy of the name he bears, and of the country's confidence.
He has nothing of youth but its glow--the ripeness of the judgment
is sometimes in advance of the time of life, and a ripe judgment is
a gift that Heaven has not denied him. He has long shared the dangers
and toils of his father. All the world knows he is master of the rough
craft of arms. Our soldiers are eager to march under his command, and
you may be sure their instinct is true--it never deceives them. The
masses guess their men. They are seldom mistaken in their choice of
those whom they think fit to lead them. And, moreover, what higher
tribute could you pay to the memory of Sampiero, than to choose his
son? Those who hear me have set their hearts too high to be within the
reach of fear.
"Are there men among us base enough to prefer the shameful security of
slavery to the storms and dangers of freedom? Let them go, and separate
themselves from the rest of the people. But let them leave us their
names. When we have engraved these names on a pillar of eternal shame,
which we shall erect on the spot where Sampiero was assassinated, we
will send their owners off, covered with disgrace, to keep company
with Vittolo and Angelo at the court of Fornari. But they are fools
not to know that arms and battle, which are the honourable resource of
free and brave men, are also the safest recourse of the weak. If they
still hesitate, let me say to them--On the one side stand renown for
our standard, liberty for ourselves, independence for our country; on
the other, the galleys, infamy, contempt, and all the other miseries of
slavery. Choose!"
After this speech of Leonardo's, the people elected by acclamation
Alfonso d'Ornano to be Chief and General of the Corsicans. Alfonso was
seventeen years old, but he was Sampiero's son. The Corsicans thus,
far from being broken and cast down by the death of Sampiero, as their
enemies had hoped, set up a stripling against the proud Republic of
Genoa, mocking the veteran Genoese generals, and the name of Doria;
and for two years the youth, victorious in numerous conflicts, held the
Genoese at bay.
Meanwhile the long war had exhausted both sides. Genoa was desirous of
peace; the island, at that time divided by the factions of the Rossi
and Negri, was critically situated, and, like its enemy, disposed for
a cessation of hostilities. The Republic, which had already, in 1561,
resumed Corsica from the Bank of St. George, now recalled the detested
Fornari, and sent George Doria to the island--the only man of the
name of whom the Corsicans have preserved a grateful memory. The first
measure of this wise and temperate nobleman was to proclaim a general
amnesty. Many districts tendered allegiance; many captains laid down
their arms. The Bishop of Sagona succeeded in persuading even the young
Alfonso to a treaty, which was concluded between him and Genoa on the
following terms:--1. Complete amnesty for Alfonso and his adherents.
2. Liberty for them and their families to embark for the Continent.
3. Liberty to dispose of their property by sale, or by leaving it
in trust. 4. Restoration of the seigniory of Ornano to Alfonso. 5.
Assignment of the Pieve Vico to the partisans of Alfonso till their
embarkation. 6. A space of sixty days for the settlement of their
affairs. 7. Liberty for each man to take a horse and some dogs with
him. 8. Cancelling of the liabilities of those who were debtors to the
public treasury; for all others, five years' grace, in consideration of
the great distress prevailing in the country. 9. Liberation of certain
persons then in confinement.
Alfonso left his native island with three hundred companions in the
year 1569; he went to France, where he was honourably received by King
Charles IX., who made him colonel of the Corsican regiment he was at
that time forming. Many Corsicans went to Venice, great numbers took
service with the Pope, who organized from them the famous Corsican
Guard of the Eight Hundred.
BOOK II.--HISTORY.
CHAPTER I.
STATE OF CORSICA IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY--A GREEK COLONY ESTABLISHED
ON THE ISLAND.
It was not till the close of the war of Sampiero that the wretched
condition of the island became fully apparent. It had become a mere
desert, and the people, decimated by the war, and by voluntary or
compulsory emigration, were plunged in utter destitution and savagery.
To make the cup of their sorrows full, the plague several times visited
the country, and famine compelled the inhabitants to live on acorns
and roots. Besides all this, the corsairs roved along the coasts,
plundered the villages, and carried off men and women into slavery.
It was in this state George Doria found the island, when he came over
as governor; and so long as he was at the head of its affairs, Corsica
had reason to rejoice in his paternal care, his mildness and clemency,
and his conscientious observance of the stipulations of the treaty,
by which the statutes and privileges of the Terra del Commune had been
specially guaranteed.
Scarcely had George Doria made way for another governor, when Genoa
returned to her old mischievous policy. People in power are usually so
obstinate and blind, that they see neither the past nor the future.
Gradually the Corsicans were again extruded from all offices, civil,
military, and ecclesiastical--the meanest posts filled with Genoese,
the old institutions suppressed, and a one-sided administration
of justice introduced. The island was considered in the light of a
Government domain. Impoverished Genoese _nobili_ had places given them
there to restore their finances. The Corsicans were involved in debt,
and they now fell into the hands of the usurers--mostly priests--to
whom they had recourse, in order to muster money for the heavy imposts.
The governor himself was to be looked on as a satrap. On his arrival
in Bastia, he received a sceptre as a symbol of his power; his salary,
paid by the country, was no trifle; and in addition, his table had
to be furnished by payments in kind--every week a calf, and a certain
quantity of fruits and vegetables. He received twenty-five per cent. of
all fines, confiscations, and prizes of smuggled goods. His lieutenants
and officials were cared for in proportion. For he brought to the
island with him an attorney-general, a master of the ceremonies, a
secretary-general, and a private secretary, a commandant of the ports,
a captain of cavalry, a captain of police, a governor-general of the
prisons. All these officials were vampires; Genoese writers themselves
confess it. The imposts became more and more oppressive; industry was
at a stand-still; commerce in the same condition--for the law provided
that all products of the country, when exported, should be carried to
the port of Genoa.
All writers who have treated of this period in Corsican history, agree
in saying that of all the countries in the world, she was at that time
the most unhappy. Prostrate under famine, pestilence, and the ravages
of war; unceasingly harassed by the Moors; robbed of her rights and her
liberty by the Genoese; oppressed, plundered; the courts of justice
venal; torn by the factions of the Blacks and Reds; bleeding at a
thousand places from family feuds and the Vendetta; the entire land one
wound--such is the picture of Corsica in those days--an island blessed
by nature with all the requisites for prosperity. Filippini counted
sixty-one fertile districts which now lay desolate and forsaken--house
and church still standing--a sight, as he says, to make one weep.
Destitute of any other pervading principle of social cohesion, the
Corsican people must have utterly broken up, and scattered into mere
hordes, unless it had been penetrated by the sentiment of patriotism,
to an extent so universal and with a force so intense. The virtue of
patriotism shows itself here in a grandeur almost inconceivable, if
we consider what a howling wilderness it was to which the Corsicans
clung with hearts so tender and true; a wilderness, but drenched with
their blood, with the blood of their fathers, of their brothers, and
of their children, and therefore dear. The Corsican historian says,
in the eleventh book of his history, "If patriotism has ever been
known at any time, and in any country of the world, to exercise power
over men, truly we may say that in the island of Corsica it has been
mightier than anywhere else; for I am altogether amazed and astounded
that the love of the inhabitants of this island for their country has
been so great, as at all times to prevent them from coming to a firm
and voluntary determination to emigrate. For if we pursue the course
of their history, from the earliest inhabitants down to the present
time, we see that throughout so many centuries this people has never
had peace and quiet for so much as a hundred years together; and that,
nevertheless, they have never resolved to quit their native island,
and so avoid the unspeakable ruin that has followed so many and so
cruel wars, that were accompanied with dearth, with conflagration, with
feuds, with murders, with inward dissensions, with tyrannous exercise
of power by so many different nations, with plundering of their goods,
with frequent attacks of those cruel barbarians--the corsairs, and
with endless miseries besides, that it would be tedious to reckon up."
Within a period of thirty years, twenty-eight thousand assassinations
were committed in Corsica.
"A great misfortune for Corsica," says the same historian, "is the
vast number of those accursed machines of arquebuses." The Genoese
Government drew a considerable revenue from the sale of licenses to
carry these. "There are," remarks Filippini, "more than seven thousand
licenses at present issued; and, besides, many carry fire-arms without
any license, and especially in the mountains, where you see nothing
but bands of twenty and thirty men, or more, all armed with arquebuses.
These licenses bring seven thousand lire out of poor, miserable Corsica
every year; for every new governor that comes annuls the licenses of
his predecessor, in order forthwith to confirm them afresh. But the
buying of the fire-arms is the worst. For you will find no Corsican
so poor that he has not his gun--in value at least from five to six
scudi, besides the outlay for powder and ball; and those that have
no money sell their vineyard, their chestnuts, or other possessions,
that they may be able to buy one, as if it were impossible to exist
unless they did so. In truth, it is astonishing, for the greater part
of these people have not a coat upon their back that is worth a half
scudo, and in their houses nothing to eat; and yet they hold themselves
for disgraced, if they appear beside their neighbours without a gun.
And hence it comes that the vineyards and the fields are no longer
under cultivation, and lie useless, and overgrown with brushwood, and
the owners are compelled to betake themselves to highway robbery and
crime; and if they find no convenient opportunity for this, then they
violently make opportunity for themselves, in order to deprive those
who go quietly about their business, and support their poor families,
of their oxen, their kine, and other cattle. From all this arises such
calamity, that the pursuit of agriculture is quite vanished out of
Corsica, though it was the sole means of support the people had--the
only kind of industry still left to these islanders. They who live
in such a mischievous manner, hinder the others from doing so well
as they might be disposed to do: and the evil does not end here; for
we hear every day of murders done now in one village, now in another,
because of the easiness with which life can be taken by means of the
arquebuses. For formerly, when such weapons were not in use, when foes
met upon the streets, if the one was two or three times stronger than
the other, an attack was not ventured. But now-a-days, if a man has
some trifling quarrel with another, although perhaps with a different
sort of weapon he would not dare to look him in the face, he lies down
behind a bush, and without the least scruple murders him, just as you
shoot down a wild beast, and nobody cares anything about it afterwards;
for justice dares not intermeddle. Moreover, the Corsicans have come to
handle their pieces so skilfully, that I pray God may shield us from
war; for their enemies will have to be upon their guard, because from
the children of eight and ten years, who can hardly carry a gun, and
never let the trigger lie still, they are day and night at the target,
and if the mark be but the size of a scudo, they hit it."
Filippini, the contemporary of Sampiero, saw fire-arms introduced into
Corsica, which were quite unknown on the island, as he informs us, till
the year 1553. Marshal Thermes--the French, therefore--first brought
fire-arms into Corsica. "And," says Filippini, "it was laughable to
see the clumsiness of the Corsicans at first, for they could neither
load nor fire; and when they discharged, they were as frightened as
the savages." What the Corsican historian says as to the fearful
consequences of the introduction of the musket into Corsica is as
true now, after the lapse of three hundred years, as it was then, and
a chronicler of to-day could not alter an iota of what Filippini has
said.
In the midst of all this Corsican distress, we are surprised by the
sudden appearance of a Greek colony on their desolate shores. The
Genoese had striven long and hard to denationalize the Corsican people
by the introduction of foreign and hostile elements. Policy of this
nature had probably no inconsiderable share in the plan of settling
a Greek colony in the island, which was carried into execution
in the year 1676. Some Mainotes of the Gulf of Kolokythia, weary
of the intolerable yoke of the Turks, like those ancient Phocæans
who refused to submit to the yoke of the Persians, had resolved to
migrate with wife, child, and goods, and found for themselves a new
home. After long search and much futile negotiation for a locality,
their ambassador, Johannes Stefanopulos, came at length to Genoa, and
expressed to the Senate the wishes of his countrymen. The Republic
listened to them most gladly, and proposed for the acceptance of the
Greeks the district of Paomia, which occupies the western coast of
Corsica from the Gulf of Porto to the Gulf of Sagona. Stefanopulos
convinced himself of the suitable nature of the locality, and the
Mainotes immediately contracted an agreement with the Genoese Senate,
in terms of which the districts of Paomia, Ruvida, and Salogna, were
granted to them in perpetual fief, with a supply of necessaries for
commencing the settlement, and toleration for their national religion
and social institutions; while they on their part swore allegiance
to Genoa, and subordinated themselves to a Genoese official sent to
reside in the colony. In March 1676, these Greeks, seven hundred and
thirty in number, landed in Genoa, where they remained two months,
previously to taking possession of their new abode. Genoa planted
this colony very hopefully; she believed herself to have gained, in
the brave men composing it, a little band of incorruptible fidelity,
who would act as a permanent forepost in the enemy's country. It was,
in fact, impossible that the Greeks could ever make common cause
with the Corsicans. These latter gazed on the strangers when they
arrived--on the new Phocæans--with astonishment. Possibly they despised
men who seemed not to love their country, since they had forsaken it;
without doubt they found it a highly unpleasant reflection that these
intruders had been thrust in upon their property in such an altogether
unceremonious manner. The poor Greeks were destined to thrive but
indifferently in their new rude home.
CHAPTER II.
INSURRECTION AGAINST GENOA.
For half a century the island lay in a state of exhaustion--the hatred
of Genoa continuing to be fostered by general and individual distress,
and at length absorbing into itself every other sentiment. The people
lived upon their hatred; their hatred alone prevented their utter ruin.
Many circumstances had been meanwhile combining to bring the profound
discontent to open revolt. It appeared to the sagacious Dodici--for
this body still existed, at least in form--that a main source of the
miseries of their country was the abuse in the matter of licensing
fire-arms. Within thirty years, as was noticed above, twenty-eight
thousand assassinations had been committed in Corsica. The Twelve
urgently entreated the Senate of the Republic to forbid the granting
of these licenses. The Senate yielded. It interdicted the selling of
muskets, and appointed a number of commissaries to disarm the island.
But as this interdict withdrew a certain amount of yearly revenue from
the exchequer, an impost of twelve scudi was laid upon each hearth,
under the name of the _due seini_, or two sixes. The people paid, but
murmured; and all the while the sale of licenses continued, both openly
and secretly.
In the year 1724, another measure was adopted which greatly annoyed the
Corsicans. The Government of the country was divided--the lieutenant
of Ajaccio now receiving the title of Governor--and thus a double
burden and twofold despotism henceforth pressed upon the unfortunate
people. In the hands of both governors was lodged irresponsible
power to condemn to the galleys or death, without form or procedure
of any kind; as the phrase went--_ex informata conscientia_ (from
informed conscience). An administration of justice entirely arbitrary,
lawlessness and murder were the results.
Special provocations--any of which might become the immediate occasion
of an outbreak--were not wanting. A punishment of a disgraceful kind
had been inflicted on a Corsican soldier in a small town of Liguria.
Condemned to ride a wooden horse, he was surrounded by a jeering crowd
who made mirth of his shame. His comrades, feeling their national
honour insulted, attacked the mocking rabble, and killed some. The
authorities beheaded them for this. When news of the occurrence reached
Corsica, the pride of the nation was roused, and, on the day for
lifting the tax of the _due seini_, a spark fired the powder in the
island itself.
The Lieutenant of Corte had gone with his collector to the Pieve of
Bozio; the people were in the fields. Only an old man of Bustancio,
Cardone by name, was waiting for the officer, and paid him his tax.
Among the coin he tendered was a gold piece deficient in value by the
amount of half a soldo. The Lieutenant refused to take it. The old
man in vain implored him to have pity on his abject poverty; he was
threatened with an execution on his goods, if he did not produce the
additional farthing on the following day; and he went away musing on
this severity, and talking about it to himself, as old men will do.
Others met him, heard him, stopped, and gradually a crowd collected
on the road. The old man continued his complaints; then passing from
himself to the wrongs of the country, he worked his audience into
fury, forcibly picturing to them the distress of the people, and the
tyranny of the Genoese, and ending by crying out--"It is time now to
make an end of our oppressors!" The crowd dispersed, the words of the
old man ran like wild-fire through the country, and awakened everywhere
the old gathering-cry _Evviva la libertà!_--_Evviva il popolo!_ The
conch[A] blew and the bells tolled the alarm from village to village. A
feeble old man had thus preached the insurrection, and half a sou was
the immediate occasion of a war destined to last for forty years. An
irrevocable resolution was adopted--to pay no further taxes of any kind
whatever. This occurred in October of the year 1729.
On hearing of the commotion among the people of Bozio, the governor,
Felix Pinelli, despatched a hundred men to the Pieve. They passed
the night in Poggio de Tavagna, having been quietly received into
the houses of the place. One of the inhabitants, however, named
Pompiliani, conceived the plan of disarming them during the night. This
was accomplished, and the defenceless soldiers permitted to return to
Bastia. Pompiliani was henceforth the declared head of the insurgents.
The people armed themselves with axes, bills, pruning-knives, threw
themselves on the fort of Aleria, stormed it, cut the garrison in
pieces, took possession of the arms and ammunition, and marched without
delay upon Bastia. More than five thousand men encamped before the
city, in the citadel of which Pinelli had shut himself up. To gain time
he sent the Bishop of Mariana into the camp of the insurgents to open
negotiations with them. They demanded the removal of all the burdens of
the Corsican people. The bishop, however, persuaded them to conclude
a truce of four-and-twenty days, to return into the mountains, and to
wait for the Senate's answer to their demands. Pinelli employed the
time he thus gained in procuring reinforcements, strengthening forts
in his neighbourhood, and fomenting dissensions. When the people saw
themselves merely trifled with and deceived, they came down from the
mountains, this time ten thousand strong, and once more encamped before
Bastia. A general insurrection was now no longer to be prevented; and
Genoa in vain sent her commissaries to negotiate and cajole.
An assembly of the people was held in Furiani. Pompiliani, chosen
commander under the urgent circumstances of the commencing outbreak,
had shown himself incapable, and was now set aside, making room for
two men of known ability--Andrea Colonna Ceccaldi of Vescovato, and
Don Luis Giafferi of Talasani--who were jointly declared generals of
the people. Bastia was now attacked anew and more fiercely, and the
bishop was again sent among the insurgents to sooth them if possible.
A truce was concluded for four months. Both sides employed it in
making preparations; intrigues of the old sort were set on foot by
the Genoese Commissary Camillo Doria; but an attempt to assassinate
Ceccaldi failed. The latter had meanwhile travelled through the
interior along with Giafferi, adjusting family feuds, and correcting
abuses; subsequently they had opened a legislative assembly in Corte.
Edicts were here issued, measures for a general insurrection taken,
judicial authorities and a militia organized. A solemn oath was sworn,
never more to wear the yoke of Genoa. The insurrection, thus regulated,
became legal and universal. The entire population, this side as well as
on the other side the mountains, now rose under the influence of one
common sentiment. Nor was the voice of religion unheard. The clergy
of the island held a convention in Orezza, and passed a unanimous
resolution--that if the Republic refused the people their rights, the
war was a measure of necessary self-defence, and the people relieved
from their oath of allegiance.
CHAPTER III.
SUCCESSES AGAINST GENOA, AND GERMAN MERCENARIES--PEACE CONCLUDED.
The canon Orticoni had been sent to the Continent to seek the
protection of the foreign powers, and Giafferi to Tuscany to procure
arms and ammunition, which were much needed; and meanwhile the truce
had expired. Genoa, refusing all concessions, demanded unconditional
submission, and the persons of the two leaders of the revolt; but when
the war was found to break out simultaneously all over the island, and
the Corsicans had taken numbers of strong places, and formed the sieges
of Bastia, of Ajaccio, and of Calvi, the Republic began to see her
danger, and had recourse to the Emperor Charles VI. for aid.
The Emperor granted them assistance. He agreed to furnish the Republic
with a corps of eight thousand Germans, making a formal bargain and
contract with the Genoese, as one merchant does with another. It was
the time when the German princes commenced the practice of selling
the blood of their children to foreign powers for gold, that it might
be shed in the service of despotism. It was also the time when the
nations began to rouse themselves; the presence of a new spirit--the
spirit of the freedom and power and progress of the masses--began to be
felt throughout the world. The poor people of Corsica have the abiding
honour of opening this new era.
The Emperor disposed of the eight thousand Germans under highly
favourable conditions. The Republic pledged herself to support them,
to pay thirty thousand gulden monthly for them, and to render a
compensation of one hundred gulden for every deserter and slain man. It
became customary, therefore, with the Corsicans, whenever they killed
a German, to call out, "A hundred gulden, Genoa!"
The mercenaries arrived in Corsica on the 10th of August 1731; not all
however, but in the first instance, only four thousand men--a number
which the Senate hoped would prove sufficient for its purposes. This
body of Germans was under the command of General Wachtendonk. They had
scarcely landed when they attacked the Corsicans, and compelled them to
raise the siege of Bastia.
The Corsicans saw the Emperor himself interfering as their oppressor,
with grief and consternation. They were in want of the merest
necessaries. In their utter poverty they had neither weapons, nor
clothing, nor shoes. They ran to battle bareheaded and barefoot. To
what side were _they_ to turn for aid? Beyond the bounds of their own
island they could reckon on none but their banished countrymen. It was
resolved, therefore, at one of the diets, to summon these home, and the
following invitation was directed to them:--
"Countrymen! our exertions to obtain the removal of our grievances have
proved fruitless, and we have determined to free ourselves by force
of arms--all hesitation is at an end. Either we shall rise from the
shameful and humiliating prostration into which we have sunk, or we
know how to die and drown our sufferings and our chains in blood. If
no prince is found, who, moved by the narrative of our misfortunes,
will listen to our complaints and protect us from our oppressors,
there is still an Almighty God, and we stand armed in the name and
for the defence of our country. Hasten to us, children of Corsica!
whom exile keeps at a distance from our shores, to fight by the side
of your brethren, to conquer or die! Let nothing hold you back--take
your arms and come. Your country calls you, and offers you a grave and
immortality!"
They came from Tuscany, from Rome, from Naples, from Marseilles. Not
a day passed but parties of them landed at some port or another, and
those who were not able to bear arms sent what they could in money and
weapons. One of these returning patriots, Filician Leoni of Balagna,
hitherto a captain in the Neapolitan service, landed near San Fiorenzo,
just as his father was passing with a troop to assault the tower of
Nonza. Father and son embraced each other weeping. The old man then
said: "My son, it is well that you have come; go in my stead, and take
the tower from the Genoese." The son instantly put himself at the head
of the troop; the father awaited the issue. Leoni took the tower of
Nonza, but a ball stretched the young soldier on the earth. A messenger
brought the mournful intelligence to his father. The old man saw him
approaching, and asked him how matters stood. "Not well," cried the
messenger; "your son has fallen!" "Nonza is taken?" "It is taken."
"Well, then," cried the old man, "evviva Corsica!"
Camillo Doria was in the meantime ravaging the country and destroying
the villages; General Wachtendonk had led his men into the interior
to reduce the province of Balagna. The Corsicans, however, after
inflicting severe losses on him, surrounded him in the mountains
near San Pellegrino. The imperial general could neither retreat nor
advance, and was, in fact, lost. Some voices loudly advised that these
foreigners should be cut down to a man. But the wise Giafferi was
unwilling to rouse the wrath of the Emperor against his poor country,
and permitted Wachtendonk and his army to return unharmed to Bastia,
only exacting the condition, that the General should endeavour to gain
Charles VI.'s ear for the Corsican grievances. Wachtendonk gave his
word of honour for this--astonished at the magnanimity of men whom he
had come to crush as a wild horde of rebels. A cessation of hostilities
for two months was agreed on. The grievances of the Corsicans were
formally drawn up and sent to Vienna; but before an answer returned,
the truce had expired, and the war commenced anew.
The second half of the imperial auxiliaries was now sent to the island;
but the bold Corsicans were again victorious in several engagements;
and on the 2d of February 1732, they defeated and almost annihilated
the Germans under Doria and De Vins, in the bloody battle of Calenzana.
The terrified Republic hereupon begged the Emperor to send four
thousand men more. But the world was beginning to manifest a lively
sympathy for the brave people who, utterly deserted and destitute of
aid, found in their patriotism alone, resources which enabled them so
gloriously to withstand such formidable opposition.
The new imperial troops were commanded by Ludwig, Prince of Würtemberg,
a celebrated general. He forthwith proclaimed an amnesty under the
condition that the people should lay down their arms, and submit to
Genoa. But the Corsicans would have nothing to do with conditions of
this kind. Würtemberg, therefore, the Prince of Culmbach, Generals
Wachtendonk, Schmettau, and Waldstein, advanced into the country
according to a plan of combined operation, while the Corsicans withdrew
into the mountains, to harass the enemy by a guerilla warfare. Suddenly
the reply of the imperial court to the Corsican representation of
grievances arrived, conveying orders to the Prince of Würtemberg to
proceed as leniently as possible with the people, as the Emperor now
saw that they had been wronged.
On the 11th of May 1732, a peace was concluded at Corte on the
following terms--1. General amnesty. 2. That Genoa should relinquish
all claims of compensation for the expenses of the war. 3. The
remission of all unpaid taxes. 4. That the Corsicans should have
free access to all offices, civil, military, and ecclesiastical.
5. Permission to found colleges, and unrestricted liberty to teach
therein. 6. Reinstatement of the Council of Twelve, and of the Council
of Six, with the privilege of an Oratore. 7. The right of defence for
accused persons. 8. The appointment of a Board to take cognizance of
the offences of public officials.
The fulfilment of this--for the Corsicans--advantageous treaty, was to
be personally guaranteed by the Emperor; and accordingly, most of the
German troops left the island, after more than three thousand of their
number had found a grave in Corsica. Only Wachtendonk remained some
time longer to see the terms of the agreement carried into effect.
CHAPTER IV.
RECOMMENCEMENT OF HOSTILITIES--DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE--DEMOCRATIC
CONSTITUTION OF COSTA.
The imperial ratification was daily expected; but before it arrived,
the Genoese Senate allowed the exasperation of defeat and the desire of
revenge to hurry it into an action which could not fail to provoke the
Corsican people to new revolt. Ceccaldi, Giafferi, the Abbé Aitelli,
and Rafaelli, the leaders of the Corsicans who had signed the treaty
in the name of their nation, were suddenly seized, and dragged off to
Genoa, under the pretext of their entertaining treasonable designs
against the state. A vehement cry of protest arose from the whole
island: the people hastened to Wachtendonk, and urged upon him that
his own honour was compromised in this violent act of the Genoese;
they wrote to the Prince of Würtemberg, to the Emperor himself,
demanding protection in terms of the treaty. The result was that the
Emperor without delay ratified the conditions of peace, and demanded
the liberation of the prisoners. All four were set at liberty, but
the Senate endeavoured to extract a promise from them never again to
return to their country. Ceccaldi went to Spain, where he entered into
military service; Rafaelli to Rome; Aitelli and Giafferi to Leghorn,
in the vicinity of their native island; where they could observe the
course of affairs, which to all appearance could not remain long in
their present posture.
On the 15th of June 1733, Wachtendonk and the last of the German
troops left the island, which, with the duly ratified instrument of
treaty in its possession, now found itself face to face with Genoa.
The two deadly foes had hardly exchanged glances, when both were again
in arms. Nothing but war to the knife was any longer possible between
the Corsicans and the Genoese. In the course of centuries, mutual hate
had become a second nature with both. The Genoese citizen came to the
island rancorous, intriguing, cunning; the Corsican was suspicious,
irritable, defiant, exultingly conscious of his individual manliness,
and his nation's tried powers of self-defence. Two or three arrests and
attempts at assassination, and the people instantly rose, and gathered
in Rostino, round Hyacinth Paoli, an active, resolute, and intrepid
burgher of Morosaglia. This was a man of unusual talent, an orator, a
poet, and a statesman; for among the rugged Corsicans, men had ripened
in the school of misfortune and continual struggle, who were destined
to astonish Europe. The people of Rostino named Hyacinth Paoli and
Castineta their generals. They had now leaders, therefore, though they
were to be considered as provisional.
No sooner had the movement broken out in Rostino, and the struggle
with Genoa been once more commenced, than the brave Giafferi threw
himself into a vessel, and landed in Corsica. The first general diet
was held in Corte, which had been taken by storm. War was unanimously
declared against Genoa, and it was resolved to place the island under
the protection of the King of Spain, whose standard was now unfurled
in Corte. The canon, Orticoni, was sent to the court of Madrid to give
expression to this wish on the part of the Corsican people.
Don Luis Giafferi was again appointed general, and this talented
commander succeeded, in the course of the year 1734, in depriving the
Genoese of all their possessions in the island, except the fortified
ports. In the year 1735, he called a general assembly of the people in
Corte. On this occasion he demanded Hyacinth Paoli as his colleague,
and this having been agreed to, the advocate, Sebastiano Costa, was
appointed to draw up the scheme of a constitution. This remarkable
assembly affirmed the independence of the Corsican people, and the
perpetual separation of Corsica from Genoa; and announced as leading
features in the new arrangements--the self-government of the people
in its parliament; a junta of six, named by parliament, and renewed
every three months, to accompany the generals as the parliament's
representatives; a civil board of four, intrusted with the oversight of
the courts of justice, of the finances, and of commercial interests.
The people in its assemblies was declared the alone source of law. A
statute-book was to be composed by the highest junta.
Such were the prominent features of a constitution sketched by the
Corsican Costa, and approved of in the year 1735, when universal
political barbarism still prevailed upon the Continent, by a people
in regard to which the obscure rumour went that it was horribly
wild and uncivilized. It appears, therefore, that nations are not
always educated for freedom and independence by science, wealth, or
brilliant circumstances of political prominence; oftener perhaps by
poverty, misfortune, and love for their country. A little people,
without literature, without trade, had thus in obscurity, and without
assistance, outstripped the most cultivated nations of Europe in
political wisdom and in humanity; its constitution had not sprung from
the hot-bed of philosophical systems--it had ripened upon the soil of
its material necessities.
Giafferi, Ceccaldi, and Hyacinth Paoli had all three been placed at the
head of affairs. Orticoni had returned from his mission to Spain, with
the answer that his catholic Majesty declined taking Corsica under his
special protection, but declared that he would not support Genoa with
troops. The Corsicans, therefore, as they could reckon on no protection
from any earthly potentate, now did as some of the Italian republics
had done during the Middle Ages, placed themselves by general consent
under the guardian care of the Virgin Mary, whose picture henceforth
figured on the standards of the country; and they chose Jesus Christ
for their _gonfaloniere_, or standard-bearer.
Genoa--which the German Emperor, involved in the affairs of Poland,
could not now assist--was meanwhile exerting itself to the utmost to
reduce the Corsicans to subjection. The republic first sent Felix
Pinelli, the former cruel governor, and then her bravest general,
Paul Battista Rivarola, with all the troops that could be raised. The
situation of the Corsicans was certainly desperate. They were destitute
of all the necessaries for carrying on the war; the country was
completely exhausted, and the Genoese cruisers prevented importation
from abroad. Their distress was such that they even made proposals for
peace, to which, however, Genoa refused to listen. The whole island was
under blockade; all commercial intercourse was at an end; vessels from
Leghorn had been captured; there was a deficiency of arms, particularly
of fire-arms, and they had no powder. Their embarrassments had become
almost insupportable, when, one day, two strange vessels came to
anchor in the gulf of Isola Rossa, and began to discharge a heavy
cargo of victuals and warlike stores--gifts for the Corsicans from
unknown and mysterious donors. The captains of the vessels scorned all
remuneration, and only asked the favour of some Corsican wine in which
to drink the brave nation's welfare. They then put out to sea again
amidst the blessings of the multitude who had assembled on the shore to
see their foreign benefactors. This little token of foreign sympathy
fairly intoxicated the poor Corsicans. Their joy was indescribable;
they rang the bells in all the villages; they said to one another that
Divine Providence, and the Blessed Virgin, had sent their rescuing
angels to the unhappy island, and their hopes grew lively that some
foreign power would at length bestow its protection on the Corsicans.
The moral impression produced by this event was so powerful, that the
Genoese feared what the Corsicans hoped, and immediately commenced
treating for peace. But it was now the turn of the Corsicans to be
obstinate.
Generous Englishmen had equipped these two ships, friends of liberty,
and admirers of Corsican heroism. Their magnanimity was soon to
come into conflict with their patriotism, through the revolt of
North America. The English supply of arms and ammunition enabled the
Corsicans to storm Aleria, where they made a prize of four pieces of
cannon. They now laid siege to Calvi and Bastia. But their situation
was becoming every moment more helpless and desperate. All their
resources were again spent, and still no foreign power interfered. In
those days the Corsicans waited in an almost religious suspense; they
were like the Jews under the Maccabees, when they hoped for a Messiah.
CHAPTER V.
BARON THEODORE VON NEUHOFF.
Early in the morning of the 12th of March 1736, a vessel under British
colours was seen steering towards Aleria. The people who crowded to the
shore greeted it with shouts of joy; they supposed it was laden with
arms and ammunition. The vessel cast anchor; and soon afterwards, some
of the principal men of the island went on board, to wait on a certain
mysterious stranger whom she had brought. This stranger was of kingly
appearance, of stately and commanding demeanour, and theatrically
dressed. He wore a long caftan of scarlet silk, Moorish trowsers,
yellow shoes, and a Spanish hat and feather; in his girdle of yellow
silk were a pair of richly inlaid pistols, a sabre hung by his side,
and in his right hand he held a long truncheon as sceptre. Sixteen
gentlemen of his retinue followed him with respectful deference as
he landed--eleven Italians, two French officers, and three Moors. The
enigmatical stranger stepped upon the Corsican shore with all the air
of a king,--and with the purpose to be one.
The Corsicans surrounded the mysterious personage with no small
astonishment. The persuasion was general that he was--if not a foreign
prince--at least the ambassador of some monarch now about to take
Corsica under his protection. The ship soon began to discharge her
cargo before the eyes of the crowd; it consisted of ten pieces of
cannon, four thousand muskets, three thousand pairs of shoes, seven
hundred sacks of grain, a large quantity of ammunition, some casks of
zechins, and a considerable sum in gold coins of Barbary. It appeared
that the leading men of the island had expected the arrival of this
stranger. Xaverius Matra was seen to greet him with all the reverence
due to a king; and all were impressed by the dignity of his princely
bearing, and the lofty composure of his manner. He was conducted in
triumph to Cervione.
This singular person was a German, the Westphalian Baron Theodore von
Neuhoff--the cleverest and most fortunate of all the adventurers of
his time. In his youth he had been a page at the court of the Duchess
of Orleans, had afterwards gone into the Spanish service, and then
returned to France. His brilliant talents had brought him into contact
with all the remarkable personages of the age; among others, with
Alberoni, with Ripperda, and Law, in whose financial speculations he
had been involved. Neuhoff had experienced everything, seen everything,
thought, attempted, enjoyed, and suffered everything. True to the
dictates of a romantic and adventurous nature, he had run through all
possible shapes in which fortune can appear, and had at length taken it
into his head, that for a man of a powerful mind like him, it must be a
desirable thing to be a king. And he had not conceived this idea in the
vein of the crackbrained Knight of La Mancha, who, riding errant into
the world, persuaded himself that he would at least be made emperor of
Trebisonde in reward for his achievements; on the contrary, accident
threw the thought into his quite unclouded intellect, and he resolved
to be a king, to become so in a real and natural way,--and he became a
king.
In the course of his rovings through Europe, Neuhoff had come to Genoa
just at the time when Giafferi, Ceccaldi, Aitelli, and Rafaelli were
brought to the city as prisoners. It seems that his attention was now
for the first time drawn to the Corsicans, whose obstinate bravery made
a deep impression on him. He formed a connexion with such Corsicans as
he could find in Genoa, particularly with men belonging to the province
of Balagna; and after gaining an insight into the state of affairs in
the island, the idea of playing a part in the history of this romantic
country gradually ripened in his mind. He immediately went to Leghorn,
where Orticoni, into whose hands the foreign relations of the island
had been committed, was at the time residing. He introduced himself
to Orticoni, and succeeded in inspiring him with admiration, and with
confidence in his magnificent promises. For, intimately connected, as
he said he was, with all the courts, he affirmed that, within the space
of a year, he would procure the Corsicans all the necessary means for
driving the Genoese for ever from the island. In return, he demanded
nothing more than that the Corsicans should crown him as their king.
Orticoni, carried away by the extraordinary genius of the man, by his
boundless promises, by the cleverness of his diplomatic, economic, and
political ideas, and perceiving that Neuhoff really might be able to
do his country good service, asked the opinion of the generals of the
island. In their desperate situation, they gave him full power to treat
with Neuhoff. Orticoni, accordingly, came to an agreement with the
baron, that he should be proclaimed king of Corsica as soon as he put
the islanders in a position to free themselves completely from the yoke
of Genoa.
As soon as Theodore von Neuhoff saw this prospect before him, he began
to exert himself for its realisation with an energy which is sufficient
of itself to convince us of his powerful genius. He put himself
in communication with the English consul at Leghorn, and with such
merchants as traded to Barbary; he procured letters of recommendation
for that country; went to Africa; and after he had moved heaven and
earth there in person, as in Europe by his agents, finding himself in
possession of all necessary equipments, he suddenly landed in Corsica
in the manner we have described.
He made his appearance when the misery of the island had reached the
last extreme. In handing over his stores to the Corsican leaders,
he informed them that they were only a small portion of what was to
follow. He represented to them that his connexions with the courts of
Europe, already powerful, would be placed on a new footing the moment
that the Genoese had been overcome; and that, wearing the crown, he
should treat as a prince with princes. He therefore desired the crown.
Hyacinth Paoli, Giafferi, and the learned Costa, men of the soundest
common sense, engaged upon an enterprise the most pressingly real in
its necessities that could possibly be committed to human hands--that
of liberating their country, and giving its liberty a form, and
secure basis, nevertheless acceded to this desire. Their engagements
to the man, and his services; the novelty of the event, which had so
remarkably inspirited the people; the prospects of further help; in
a word, their necessitous circumstances, demanded it. Theodore von
Neuhoff, king-designate of the Corsicans, had the house of the Bishop
of Cervione appointed him for his residence; and on the 15th of April,
the people assembled to a general diet in the convent of Alesani, in
order to pass the enactment converting Corsica into a kingdom. The
assembly was composed of two representatives from every commune in the
country, and of deputies from the convents and clergy, and more than
two thousand people surrounded the building. The following constitution
was laid before the Parliament: The crown of the kingdom of Corsica is
given to Baron Theodore von Neuhoff and his heirs; the king is assisted
by a council of twenty-four, nominated by the people, without whose and
the Parliament's consent no measures can be adopted or taxes imposed.
All public offices are open to the Corsicans only; legislative acts can
proceed only from the people and its Parliament.
These articles were read by Gaffori, a doctor of laws, to the assembled
people, who gave their consent by acclamation; Baron Theodore then
signed them in presence of the representatives of the nation, and
swore, on the holy gospels, before all the people, to remain true to
the constitution. This done, he was conducted into the church, where,
after high mass had been said, the generals placed the crown upon his
head. The Corsicans were too poor to have a crown of gold; they plaited
one of laurel and oak-leaves, and crowned therewith their first and
last king. And thus Baron Theodore von Neuhoff, who already styled
himself Grandee of Spain, Lord of Great Britain, Peer of France, Count
of the Papal Dominions, and Prince of the Empire, became King of the
Corsicans, with the title of Theodore the First.
Though this singular affair may be explained from the then
circumstances of the island, and from earlier phenomena in Corsican
history, it still remains astonishing. So intense was the patriotism
of this people, that to obtain their liberty and rescue their country,
they made a foreign adventurer their king, because he held out to them
hopes of deliverance; and that their brave and tried leaders, without
hesitation and without jealousy, quietly divested themselves of their
authority.
CHAPTER VI.
THEODORE I., KING OF CORSICA.
Now in possession of the kingly title, Theodore wished to see himself
surrounded by a kingly court, and was, therefore, not sparing in his
distribution of dignities. He named Don Luis Giafferi and Hyacinth
Paoli his prime ministers, and invested them with the title of Count.
Xaverius Matra became a marquis, and grand-marshal of the palace;
Giacomo Castagnetta, count and commandant of Rostino; Arrighi, count
and inspector-general of the troops. He gave others the titles of
barons, margraves, lieutenants-general, captains of the Royal Guard,
and made them commandants of various districts of the country. The
advocate Costa, now Count Costa, was created grand-chancellor of the
kingdom, and Dr. Gaffori, now Marquis Gaffori, cabinet-secretary to his
Majesty the constitutional king.
Ridiculous as all these pompous arrangements may appear, King Theodore
set himself in earnest to accomplish his task. In a short time he had
established order in the country, settled family feuds, and organized
a regular army, with which, in April 1736, he took Porto Vecchio and
Sartene from the Genoese. The Senate of Genoa had at first viewed
the enigmatic proceedings that were going on before its eyes with
astonishment and fear, imagining that the intentions of some foreign
power might be concealed behind them. But when obscurities cleared
away, and Baron Theodore stood disclosed, they began to lampoon him in
pamphlets, and brand him as an unprincipled adventurer deep in debt.
King Theodore replied to the Genoese manifestoes with kingly dignity,
German bluntness, and German humour. He then marched in person against
Bastia, fought like a lion before its walls, and when he found he
could not take the city, blockaded it, making, meanwhile, expeditions
into the interior of the island, in the course of which he punished
rebellious districts with unscrupulous severity, and several times
routed the Genoese troops.
The Genoese were soon confined to their fortified towns on the sea. In
their embarrassment at this period they had recourse to a disgraceful
method of increasing their strength. They formed a regiment, fifteen
hundred strong, of their galley-slaves, bandits, and murderers, and let
loose this refuse upon Corsica. The villanous band made frequent forays
into the country, and perpetrated numberless enormities. They got the
name of Vittoli, from Sampiero's murderer, or of Oriundi.
King Theodore made great exertions for the general elevation of the
country. He established manufactories of arms, of salt, of cloth; he
endeavoured to introduce animation into trade, to induce foreigners
to settle in the island, by offering them commercial privileges, and,
by encouraging privateering, to keep the Genoese cruisers in check.
The Corsican national flag was green and yellow, and bore the motto:
_In te Domine speravi_. Theodore had also struck his own coins--gold,
silver, and copper. These coins showed on the obverse a shield wreathed
with laurel, and above it a crown with the initials, T. R.; on the
reverse were the words: _Pro bono et libertate_. On the Continent,
King Theodore's money was bought up by the curious for thirty times
its value. But all this was of little avail; the promised help did not
come, the people began to murmur. The king was continually announcing
the immediate appearance of a friendly fleet; the friendly fleet never
appeared, because its promise was a fabrication. The murmurs growing
louder, Theodore assembled a Parliament on the 2d of September, in
Casacconi; here he declared that he would lay down his crown, if the
expected help did not appear by the end of October, or that he would
then go himself to the Continent to hasten its appearance. He was in
the same desperate position in which, as the story goes, Columbus was,
when the land he had announced would not appear.
On the dissolution of the Parliament, which, at the proposal of the
king, had agreed to a new measure of finance--a tax upon property,
Theodore mounted his horse, and went to view his kingdom on the other
side the mountains. This region had been the principal seat of the
Corsican seigniors, and the old aristocratic feeling was still strong
there. Luca Ornano received the monarch with a deputation of the
principal gentlemen, and conducted him in festal procession to Sartene.
Here Theodore fell upon the princely idea of founding a new order
of knighthood; it was a politic idea, and, in fact, we observe, in
general, that the German baron and Corsican king knows how to conduct
himself in a politic manner, as well as other upstarts of greater
dimensions who have preceded and followed him. The name of the new
order was The Order of the Liberation (_della Liberazione_). The king
was grand-master, and named the cavaliers. It is said that in less
than two months the Order numbered more than four hundred members,
and that upwards of a fourth of these were foreigners, who sought the
honour of membership, either for the mere singularity of the thing, or
to indicate their good wishes for the brave Corsicans. The membership
was dear, for it had been enacted that every cavalier should pay a
thousand scudi as entry-money, from which he was to draw an annuity
of ten per cent. for life. The Order, then, in its best sense, was an
honour awarded in payment for a loan--a financial speculation. During
his residence in Sartene, the king, at the request of the nobles of
the region, conferred with lavish hand the titles of Count, Baron, and
Baronet, and with these the representatives of the houses of Ornano,
Istria, Rocca, and Leca, went home comforted.
While the king thus acted in kingly fashion, and filled the island
with counts and cavaliers, as if poor Corsica had overnight become
a wealthy empire, the bitterest cares of state were preying upon him
in secret. For he could not but confess to himself that his kingdom
was after all but a painted one, and that he had surrounded himself
with phantoms. The long-announced fleet obstinately refused to
appear, because it too was a painted fleet. This chimera occasioned
the king greater embarrassment than if it had been a veritable fleet
of a hundred well-equipped hostile ships. Theodore began to feel
uncomfortable. Already there was an organized party of malcontents in
the land, calling themselves the Indifferents. Aitelli and Rafaelli had
formed this party, and Hyacinth Paoli himself had joined it. The royal
troops had even come into collision with the Indifferents, and had been
repulsed. It seemed, therefore, as if Theodore's kingdom were about to
burst like a soap-bubble; Giafferi alone still kept down the storm for
a while.
In these circumstances, the king thought it might be advisable to go
out of the way for a little; to leave the island, not secretly, but
as a prince, hastening to the Continent to fetch in person the tardy
succours. He called a parliament at Sartene, announced that he was
about to take his departure, and the reason why; settled the interim
government, at the head of which he put Giafferi, Hyacinth Paoli,
and Luca Ornano; made twenty-seven Counts and Baronets governors of
provinces; issued a manifesto; and on the 11th of November 1736,
proceeded, accompanied by an immense retinue, to Aleria, where he
embarked in a vessel showing French colours, taking with him Count
Costa, his chancellor, and some officers of his household. He would
have been captured by a Genoese cruiser before he was out of sight of
his kingdom, and sent to Genoa, if he had not been protected by the
French flag. King Theodore landed at Leghorn in the dress of an abbé,
wishing to remain incognito; he then travelled to Florence, to Rome,
and to Naples, where he left his chancellor and his officers, and went
on board a vessel bound for Amsterdam, from which city, he said, his
subjects should speedily hear good news.
CHAPTER VII.
GENOA IN DIFFICULTIES--AIDED BY FRANCE--THEODORE EXPELLED HIS KINGDOM.
The Corsicans did not believe in the return of their king, nor in the
help he promised to send them. Under the pressure of severe necessity,
the poor people, intoxicated with their passion for liberty, had gone
so far as even to expose themselves to the ridicule which could not
fail to attach to the kingship of an adventurer. In their despair they
had caught at a phantom, at a straw, for rescue; what would they not
have done out of hatred to Genoa, and love of freedom? Now, however,
they saw themselves no nearer the goal they wished to reach. Many
showed symptoms of discontent. In this state of affairs, the Regents
attempted to open negotiations with Rivarola, but without result, as
the Genoese demanded unconditional submission, and surrender of arms.
An assembly of the people was called, and its voice taken. The people
resolved unhesitatingly that they must remain true to the king to whom
they had sworn allegiance, and acknowledge no other sovereign.
Theodore had meanwhile travelled through part of Europe, formed
new connexions, opened speculations, raised money, named cavaliers,
enlisted Poles and Germans; and although his creditors at Amsterdam
threw him into a debtors' prison, the fertile genius of the wonderful
man succeeded in raising supplies to send to Corsica. From time to
time a ship reached the island with warlike stores, and a proclamation
encouraging the Corsicans to remain steadfast.
This, and the fear that the unwearying and energetic Theodore might
at length actually win some continental power to his side, made the
Republic of Genoa anxious. The Senate had set a price of two thousand
genuini on the head of the Corsican king, and the agents of Genoa
dogged his footsteps at every court. Herself in pecuniary difficulties,
Genoa had drawn upon the Bank for three millions, and taken three
regiments of Swiss into her pay. The guerilla warfare continued. It was
carried on with the utmost ferocity; no quarter was given now on either
side. The Republic, seeing no end of the exhausting struggle, resolved
to call in the assistance of France. She had hitherto hesitated to have
recourse to a foreign power, as her treasury was exhausted, and former
experiences had not been of the most encouraging kind.
The French cabinet willingly seized an opportunity, which, if properly
used, would at least prevent any other power from obtaining a footing
on an island whose position near the French boundaries gave it so high
an importance. Cardinal Fleury concluded a treaty with the Genoese
on the 12th of July 1737, in virtue of which France pledged herself
to send an army into Corsica to reduce the "rebels" to subjection.
Manifestoes proclaimed this to the Corsican people. They produced
the greatest sorrow and consternation, all the more so, that a power
now declared her intention of acting against the Corsicans, which,
in earlier times, had stood in a very different relation to them.
The Corsican people replied to these manifestoes, by the declaration
that they would never again return under the yoke of Genoa, and by a
despairing appeal to the compassion of the French king.
In February of the year 1738, five French regiments landed under the
command of Count Boissieux. The General had strict orders to effect,
if possible, a peaceable settlement; and the Genoese hoped that the
mere sight of the French would be sufficient to disarm the Corsicans.
But the Corsicans remained firm. The whole country had risen as one man
at the approach of the French; beacons on the hills, the conchs in the
villages, the bells in the convents, called the population to arms. All
of an age to carry arms took the field furnished with bread for eight
days. Every village formed its little troop, every pieve its battalion,
every province its camp. The Corsicans stood ready and waiting.
Boissieux now opened negotiations, and these lasted for six months,
till the announcement came from Versailles that the Corsicans must
submit unconditionally to the supremacy of Genoa. The people replied
in a manifesto addressed to Louis XV., that they once more implored
him to cast a look of pity upon them, and to bear in mind the friendly
interest which his illustrious ancestors had taken in Corsica; and they
declared that they would shed their last drop of blood before they
would return under the murderous supremacy of Genoa. In their bitter
need, they meanwhile gave certain hostages required, and expressed
themselves willing to trust the French king, and to await his final
decision.
In this juncture, Baron Droste, nephew of Theodore, landed one day at
Aleria, bringing a supply of ammunition, and the intelligence that the
king would speedily return to the island. And on the 15th of September
this remarkable man actually did land at Aleria, more splendidly and
regally equipped than when he came the first time. He brought three
ships with him; one of sixty-four guns, another of sixty, and the third
of fifty-five, besides gunboats, and a small flotilla of transports.
They were laden with munitions of war to a very considerable amount--27
pieces of cannon, 7000 muskets with bayonets, 1000 muskets of a larger
size, 2000 pistols, 24,000 pounds of coarse and 100,000 pounds of fine
powder, 200,000 pounds of lead, 400,000 flints, 50,000 pounds of iron,
2000 lances, 2000 grenades and bombs. All this had been raised by the
same man whom his creditors in Amsterdam threw into a debtors' prison.
He had succeeded by his powers of persuasion in interesting the Dutch
for Corsica, and convincing them that a connexion with this island
in the Mediterranean was desirable. A company of capitalists--the
wealthy houses of Boom, Tronchain, and Neuville--had agreed to lend
the Corsican king vessels, money, and the materials of war. Theodore
thus landed in his kingdom under the Dutch flag. But he found to his
dismay that affairs had taken a turn which prostrated all his hopes;
and that he had to experience a fate tinged with something like irony,
since, when he came as an adventurer he obtained a crown, but now could
not be received as king though he came as a king, with substantial
means for maintaining his dignity. He found the island split into
conflicting parties, and in active negotiation with France. The people,
it is true, led him once more in triumph to Cervione, where he had been
crowned; but the generals, his own counts, gave him to understand that
circumstances compelled them to have nothing more to do with him, but
to treat with France. Immediately on Theodore's arrival, Boissieux had
issued a proclamation, which declared every man a rebel, and guilty of
high treason, who should give countenance to the outlaw, Baron Theodore
von Neuhoff; and the king thus saw himself forsaken by the very men
whom he had, not long before, created counts, margraves, barons, and
cavaliers. The Dutchmen, too, disappointed in their expectations, and
threatened by French and Genoese ships, very soon made up their minds,
and in high dudgeon steered away for Naples. Theodore von Neuhoff,
therefore, also saw himself compelled to leave the island; and vexed to
the heart, he set sail for the Continent.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE FRENCH REDUCE CORSICA--NEW INSURRECTION--THE PATRIOT GAFFORI.
In the end of October, the expected decisive document arrived from
Versailles in the form of an edict issued by the Doge and Senate
of Genoa, and signed by the Emperor and the French king. The edict
contained a few concessions, and the express command to lay down
arms and submit to Genoa. Boissieux gave the Corsicans fifteen days
to comply with this. They immediately assembled in the convent of
Orezza to deliberate, and to rouse the nation; and they declared in a
manifesto--"We shall not lose courage; arming ourselves with the manly
resolve to die, we shall prefer ending our lives nobly with our weapons
in our hands, to remaining idle spectators of the sufferings of our
country, living in chains, and bequeathing slavery to our posterity.
We think and say with the Maccabees: _consiglio supremo_)--a body of
nine men, answering to the nine free provinces of Corsica--Nebbio,
Casinca, Balagna, Campoloro, Orezza, Ornano, Rogna, Vico, and Cinarca.
In the Supreme Council was vested the executive power; it summoned the
Consulta, represented it in foreign affairs, regulated public works,
and watched in general over the security of the country. In cases
of unusual importance it was the last appeal, and was privileged to
interpose a veto on the resolutions of the Consulta till the matter in
question had been reconsidered. Its president was the General of the
nation, who could do nothing without the approval of this council.
Both powers, however--the council as well as the president--were
responsible to the people, or their representatives, and could
be deposed and punished by a decree of the nation. The members of
the Supreme Council held office for one year; they were required
to be above thirty-five years of age, and to have previously been
representatives of the magistracy of a province.
The Consulta also elected the five syndics, or censors. The duty of the
Syndicate was to travel through the provinces, and hear appeals against
the general or the judicial administration of any particular district;
its sentence was final, and could not be reversed by the General. The
General named persons to fill the public offices, and the collectors of
taxes, all of whom were subject to the censorship of the Syndicate.
Justice was administered as follows:--Each Podestà could decide in
cases not exceeding the value of ten livres. In conjunction with the
Fathers of the Community, he could determine causes to the value of
thirty livres. Cases involving more than thirty livres were tried
before the tribunal of the province, where the court consisted of a
president and two assessors named by the Consulta, and of a fiscal
named by the Supreme Council. This tribunal was renewed every year.
An appeal lay from it to the Rota Civile, the highest court of justice,
consisting of three doctors of laws, who held office for life. The
same courts administered criminal justice, assisted always by a jury
consisting of six fathers of families, who decided on the merits of
the case from the evidence furnished by the witnesses, and pronounced
a verdict of guilty or not guilty.
The members of the supreme council, of the Syndicate, and of the
provincial tribunals, could only be re-elected after a lapse of
two years. The Podestàs and Fathers of the Communities were elected
annually by the citizens of their locality above twenty-five years of
age.
In cases of emergency, when revolt and tumult had broken out in some
part of the island, the General could send a temporary dictatorial
court into the quarter, called the War Giunta (_giunta di osservazione
o di guerra_), consisting of three or more members, with one of
the supreme councillors at their head. Invested with unlimited
authority to adopt whatever measures seemed necessary, and to punish
instantaneously, this swiftly-acting "court of high commission" could
not fail to strike terror into the discontented and evil-disposed; the
people gave it the name of the _Giustizia Paolina_. Having fulfilled
its mission, it rendered an account of its proceedings to the Censors.
Such is an outline of Paoli's legislation, and of the constitution of
the Corsican Republic. When we consider its leading ideas--self-government
of the people, liberty of the individual citizen protected and
regulated on every side by law, participation in the political life of
the country, publicity and simplicity in the administration, popular
courts of justice--we cannot but confess that the Corsican state was
constructed on principles of a wider and more generous humanity than
any other in the same century. And if we look at the time when it took
its rise, many years before the world had seen the French democratic
legislation, or the establishment of the North American republic under
the great Washington, Pasquale Paoli and his people gain additional
claims to our admiration.
Paoli disapproved of standing armies. He himself said:--"In a
country which desires to be free, each citizen must be a soldier, and
constantly in readiness to arm himself for the defence of his rights.
Paid troops do more for despotism than for freedom. Rome ceased to be
free on the day when she began to maintain a standing army; and the
unconquerable phalanxes of Sparta were drawn immediately from the ranks
of her citizens. Moreover, as soon as a standing army has been formed,
_esprit de corps_ is originated, the bravery of this regiment and that
company is talked of--a more serious evil than is generally supposed,
and one which it is well to avoid as far as possible. We ought to
speak of the intrepidity of the particular citizen, of the resolute
bravery displayed by this commune, of the self-sacrificing spirit which
characterizes the members of that family; and thus awaken emulation
in a free people. When our social condition shall have become what
it ought to be, our whole people will be disciplined, and our militia
invincible."
Necessity compelled Paoli to yield so far in this matter, as to
organize a small body of regular troops to garrison the forts. These
consisted of two regiments of four hundred men each, commanded by
Jacopo Baldassari and Titus Buttafuoco. Each company had two captains
and two lieutenants; French, Prussian, and Swiss officers gave them
drill. Every regular soldier was armed with musket and bayonet, a pair
of pistols, and a dagger. The uniform was made from the black woollen
cloth of the country; the only marks of distinction for the officers
were, that they wore a little lace on the coat-collar, and had no
bayonet in their muskets. All wore caps of the skin of the Corsican
wild-boar, and long gaiters of calf-skin reaching to the knee. Both
regiments were said to be highly efficient.
The militia was thus organized: All Corsicans from sixteen to sixty
were soldiers. Each commune had to furnish one or more companies,
according to its population, and chose its own officers. Each pieve,
again, formed a camp, under a commandant named by the General. The
entire militia was divided into three levies, each of which entered
for fifteen days at a time. It was a generally-observed rule to rank
families together, so that the soldiers of a company were mostly
blood-relations. The troops in garrison received yearly pay, the others
were paid only so long as they kept the field. The villages furnished
bread.
The state expenses were met from the tax of two livres on each family,
the revenues from salt, the coral-fishery, and other indirect imposts.
Nothing that can initiate or increase the prosperity of a people was
neglected by Paoli. He bestowed special attention on agriculture;
the Consulta elected two commissaries yearly for each province,
whose business it was to superintend and foster agriculture in their
respective districts. The cultivation of the olive, the chestnut, and
of maize, was encouraged; plans for draining marshes and making roads
were proposed. With one hand, at that period, the Corsican warded off
his foe, as soldier; with the other, as husbandman, he scattered his
seed upon the soil.
Paoli also endeavoured to give his people mental cultivation--the
highest pledge and the noblest consummation of all freedom and all
prosperity. The iron times had hitherto prevented its spread. The
Corsicans had remained children of nature; they were ignorant, but
rich in mother-wit. Genoa, it is said, had intentionally neglected the
schools; but now, under Paoli's government, their numbers everywhere
increased, and the Corsican clergy, brave and liberal men, zealously
instructed the youth. A national printing-house was established
in Corte, from which only books devoted to the instruction and
enlightenment of the people issued. The children found it written in
these books, that love of his native country was a true man's highest
virtue; and that all those who had fallen in battle for liberty had
died as martyrs, and had received a place in heaven among the saints.
On the 3d of January 1765, Paoli opened the Corsican university. In
this institution, theology, philosophy, mathematics, jurisprudence,
philology, and the belles-lettres were taught. Medicine and surgery
were in the meantime omitted, till Government was in a position to
supply the necessary instruments. All the professors were Corsicans;
the leading names were Guelfucci of Belgodere, Stefani of Benaco,
Mariani of Corbara, Grimaldi of Campoloro, Ferdinandi of Brando,
Vincenti of Santa Lucia. Poor scholars were supported at the public
expense. At the end of each session, an examination took place before
the members of the Consulta and the Government. Thus the presence of
the most esteemed citizens of the island heightened both praise and
blame. The young men felt that they were regarded by them, and by the
people in general, as the hope of their country's future, and that they
would soon be called upon to join or succeed them in their patriotic
endeavours. Growing up in the midst of the weighty events of their own
nation's stormy history, they had the one high ideal constantly and
vividly before their eyes. The spirit which accordingly animated these
youths may readily be imagined, and will be seen from the following
fragment of one of the orations which it was customary for some student
of the Rhetoric class to deliver in presence of the representatives and
Government of the nation.
"All nations that have struggled for freedom have endured great
vicissitudes of fortune. Some of them were less powerful and less
brave than our own; nevertheless, by their resolute steadfastness they
at last overcame their difficulties. If liberty could be won by mere
talking, then were the whole world free; but the pursuit of freedom
demands an unyielding constancy that rises superior to all obstacles--a
virtue so rare among men that those who have given proof of it have
always been regarded as demigods. Certainly the privileges of a free
people are too valuable--their condition too fortunate, to be treated
of in adequate terms; but enough is said if we remember that they
excite the admiration of the greatest men. As regards ourselves, may
it please Heaven to allow us to follow the career on which we have
entered! But our nation, whose heart is greater than its fortunes,
though it is poor and goes coarsely clad, is a reproach to all Europe,
which has grown sluggish under the burden of its heavy chains; and it
is now felt to be necessary to rob us of our existence.
"Brave countrymen! the momentous crisis has come. Already the storm
rages over our heads; dangers threaten on every side; let us see to
it that we maintain ourselves superior to circumstances, and grow
in strength with the number of our foes; our name, our freedom, our
honour, are at stake! In vain shall we have exhibited heroic endurance
up till the present time--in vain shall our forefathers have shed
streams of blood and suffered unheard-of miseries; if _we_ prove weak,
then all is irremediably lost. If we prove weak! Mighty shades of our
fathers! ye who have done so much to bequeath to us liberty as the
richest inheritance, fear not that we shall make you ashamed of your
sacrifices. Never! Your children will faithfully imitate your example;
they are resolved to live free, or to die fighting in defence of their
inalienable and sacred rights. We cannot permit ourselves to believe
that the King of France will side with our enemies, and direct his arms
against our island; surely this can never happen. But if it is written
in the book of fate, that the most powerful monarch of the earth is to
contend against one of the smallest peoples of Europe, then we have new
and just cause to be proud, for we are certain either to live for the
future in honourable freedom, or to make our fall immortal. Those who
feel themselves incapable of such virtue need not tremble; I speak only
to true Corsicans, and their feelings are known.
"As regards us, brave youths, none--I swear by the manes of our
fathers!--not one will wait a second call; before the face of the
world we must show that we deserve to be called brave. If foreigners
land upon our coasts ready to give battle to uphold the pretensions of
their allies, shall we who fight for our own welfare--for the welfare
of our posterity--for the maintenance of the righteous and magnanimous
resolutions of our fathers--shall we hesitate to defy all dangers,
to risk, to sacrifice our lives? Brave fellow-citizens! liberty
is our aim--and the eyes of all noble souls in Europe are upon us;
they sympathize with us, they breathe prayers for the triumph of our
cause. May our resolute firmness exceed their expectations! and may
our enemies, by whatever name called, learn from experience that the
conquest of Corsica is not so easy as it may seem! We who live in this
land are freemen, and freemen can die!"
CHAPTER XI.
CORSICA UNDER PAOLI--TRAFFIC IN NATIONS--VICTORIES OVER THE FRENCH.
All the thoughts and wishes of the Corsican people were thus directed
towards a common aim. The spirit of the nation was vigorous and
buoyant; ennobled by the purest love of country, by a bravery that had
become hereditary, by the sound simplicity of the constitution, which
was no artificial product of foreign and borrowed theorizings, but the
fruit of sacred, native tradition. The great citizen, Pasquale Paoli,
was the father of his country. Wherever he showed himself, he was met
by the love and the blessings of his people, and women and gray-haired
men raised their children and children's children in their
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