unprovoked outrage was committed on an unarmed
and unoffending British subject;" and the British government were
satisfied, he said, that "the government of Tuscany must be anxious
to mark their abhorrence of this outrage inflicted upon an innocent
individual."*

* Official Papers, No. 18.

Of that evidence Mr. Scarlett, the _charge d'affaires_, writes to Earl
Granville ** that, "All the witnesses concur, more or less, in bearing
out Mather's statement.

** Official Papers, No. 18.

None are in contradiction with it. Perhaps the most important evidence
is that of Pini, which exactly corroborates Mather's statement, and
certainly there is not a single syllable, from first to last, at
variance with it." Thus speaks Giovanni Pini, the important witness of
the scene of blood and outrage:--"On the day in question, about twelve
o'clock, more or less, I was in the Via Martelli, about half way down,
when I heard coming towards me the Austrian military band, which was
accompanying, as usual, the detachment intended to relieve the guard of
the city. As soon as the band had passed, I stationed myself on the path
where the people were, that is between the band and the soldiers who
were behind. The street being rather narrow the people who were close
by the band, I may say in a crowd, were pressing upon each other. A few
steps further on I observed an Austrian officer, who had a cap on, and
was therefore at the time off duty, strike, with his left hand, a young
man who was on that side of him, with a blow which hit him on the
face, and I suppose it was given with some force, for the young man who
received it staggered backwards; and I observed that, as soon as he had
recovered himself, another Austrian officer, who was the one at the head
of the soldiers, and marching with them with his drawn sword, strike
with it the same young man on the head, inflicting a wound on his
forehead, from which blood began to flow in such quantities, as wine
from a broken bottle. I immediately ran to the assistance of the poor
youth, who had been so unreasonably ill-treated, since I could not find
that he had offended the soldiers in any manner. Besides myself he was
assisted by a gentleman who showed that he was his brother, although he
could not speak Italian, and a Frenchman whom I do not know. There was
also a priest, who was moreover unknown to me. There were other persons,
also, who witnessed the transaction like myself, but I coul