TRANSLATOR'S NOTE In view of the fact that those incapable of estimating the man and his extraordinary qualities have seen fit to cast aspersions upon the high intelligence and clearsightedness of Giovanni Patrizi, the compiler of these Memoirs, the Marchesa Maddelena Patrizi has judged it as well to append to her work a just and conclusive appreciation of him from the "Memoirs of Cardinal Pacca." It will be remembered that Cardinal Pacca was for a long time the Marchese's fellow-prisoner. The terms in which he speaks of him leave no doubt as to the high consideration with which Patrizi was regarded by the most thoughtful and distinguished men of his day. We reproduce the extract word for word. "The year 1811 closed with the arrival at Fenestrelle of a prisoner worthy of particular mention. This was the Marchese Giovanni Naro Patrizi; he arrived on the 28th of December, the day on which the Church celebrates the Slaughter of the Holy Innocents. He had earned his sentence by refusing to consign his sons to the French Government, which insisted on educating them in one of the French Colleges, a possibility which Patrizi regarded as a far worse fate than death for them-the destruction of their innocence and religious faith. I had often seen him in Rome, but had never conversed with him. This young Cavalier had no taste for noisy entertainments and the gay society of fashionable people; he was constantly seen in the churches, and gave much edification by assisting, in the habit of the brotherhood, at the religious functions of the Confraternities of which he was a member. This was enough to cause him to be looked down upon, laughed at, and generally regarded as a man of limited intelligence, dull, and more fitted for the cloister than the world. The occupation of Rome by the French, and the change of government, demonstrated how mistaken was this opinion of his character. "While other gentlemen of the first nobility, either through base cowardice, or the even lower motive of personal interest, made efforts to obtain employments and appointments from the usurping Government, and crawled to the feet of General Miollis and the other French Ministers, Patrizi preserved intact the rare and exalted sentiments of a true Roman noble. Of these he gave brilliant proof when it was intimated to various parents that the Emperor required them to give up their children to the authorities to be educated in the schools and colleges of France. Patrizi instantly understood, and was revolted at the perfidious motive of this pretended paternal solicitude, and, rather than con TRANSLATOR'S NOTE 319 sign his own sons to the new Moloch Idol, exposed himself to the indignation and fury of Napoleon, who had him arrested and kept prisoner, first at Cività Vecchia, and then at Fenestrelle. "As the extreme rigour which had been exercised towards me in the first years of my imprisonment was then somewhat relaxed, and some of the other prisoners were allowed to come to my room and keep me company, I had full opportunity for knowing Patrizi well and forming my judgment on him. I can therefore say emphatically that he appeared to me a man well gifted with culture and erudition, and, further, one possessed of such principles of piety and religion that he was the edification of his fellow-prisoners." |