ision of Italian liberation--of a sort. A few
madmen were dazzled by it, and Ciro Menotti was one of them. You know
the end. The Duke of Modena, who had counted on Louis Philippe's
backing, found that that astute sovereign had betrayed him to Austria.
Instantly, he saw that his first business was to get rid of the
conspirators he had created. There was nothing easier than for a
Hapsburg Este to turn on a friend. Ciro Menotti had staked his life for
the Duke--and the Duke took it. You may remember that, on the night
when seven hundred men and a cannon attacked Menotti's house, the Duke
was seen looking on at the slaughter from an arcade across the square.

Well, among the lesser fry taken that night was a lad of eighteen,
Emilio Verna, who was the only brother of Donna Candida. The Verna
family was one of the most respected in Modena. It consisted, at that
time, of the mother, Countess Verna, of young Emilio and his sister.
Count Verna had been in Spielberg in the twenties. He had never
recovered from his sufferings there, and died in exile, without seeing
his wife and children again. Countess Verna had been an ardent patriot
in her youth, but the failure of the first attempts against Austria had
discouraged her. She thought that in losing her husband she had
sacrificed enough for her country, and her one idea was to keep Emilio
on good terms with the government. But the Verna blood was not
tractable, and his father's death was not likely to make Emilio a good
subject of the Estes. Not that he had as yet taken any active share in
the work of the conspirators: he simply hadn't had time. At his trial
there was nothing to show that he had been in Menotti's confidence; but
he had been seen once or twice coming out of what the ducal police
called "suspicious" houses, and in his desk were found some verses to
Italy. That was enough to hang a man in Modena, and Emilio Verna was
hanged.

The Countess never recovered from the blow. The circumstances of her
son's death were too abominable, to unendurable. If he had risked his
life in the conspiracy, she might have been reconciled to his losing
it. But he was a mere child, who had sat at home, chafing but
powerless, while his seniors plotted and fought. He had been sacrificed
to the Duke's insane fear, to his savage greed for victims, and the
Countess Verna was not to be consoled.

As soon as possible, the mother and daughter left Modena for Milan.
There they lived in seclusion