My Return to Faenza—First Visit of the Count Borghi—His
Story—Public Rumours—Evidence of Messieurs Valla, Guerzani,
Tondini, Ludovichetti, della Valle, Perelli and Maresta—My
Letter to the Count—His Second Visit—Legal Formalities—Judgment
in my Favour—Decree of Rectification.
Before leaving France, I made several discoveries which more and more
strongly confirmed my suspicions as to the personality of the Comte
Joinville. But my first object being to find proof of the exchange
itself, I went again to the place where it had been effected.
As I passed through Turin, Alessandria, Reggio, etc., I employed several
people to make inquiries for me. At Modena I made the acquaintance of the
lawyer, Massa, who had a great reputation, and who clearly marked out for
me the course I ought to take. At Bologna I engaged an advocate whom this
gentleman had recommended to me; but I was soon obliged to give him up on
account of his dilatoriness, and replaced him by the Signore Bucci, of
Faenza.
When I arrived at that town, I went to stay with the Marchesa di Spada,
to whom I had an introduction.
As she was very intimate with Count Borghi, I had conceived the hope of
obtaining through her useful information, and especially the return of
certain papers that gentleman, it was said, boasted of having in his
possession.
She wrote to him, but there was no answer. I then called upon the Bishop
of the diocese, claiming from him a perfectly impartial investigation
of my case, assuring him that I asked for nothing but justice, and
entreating him to persuade the Count to accept my invitation.
The prelate strongly backed my request, and Count Borghi, not daring
to refuse him, at last came to see me, bringing with him an enormous
packet of letters which he declared he had received from me. They bore
the fictitious name of my so-called man-of-business, and were evidently
written with the intention of incensing against me a man who might prove
so helpful to me.[4]
My astonishment was beyond words, and I made such eager protestations of
my innocence in the matter that he was quite convinced of the truth, and
spoke to me as follows—
“I have often had occasion to look over old papers belonging to the
Borghi family, of whom I became the representative; and one day when I
was doing so at Modigliana I saw a letter addressed to the late Count
Pompeo, dated from Turin and signed _Louis, Comte de Joinville_, the
contents of which, so far as I can remember, were as follows—
“‘Since we left that place, my wife, always prolific of girls, has at
last presented me with a boy. As to the one of whom you know, there is
left only the grief of having lost him, and I feel no _further scruples_
on his account. My compliments to your ladies, and believe me, etc.’
“This letter greatly struck me, and I examined it more than once; but
then I considered it of no importance, and I ended by tearing it up,
without attempting to remember the date.”
“In the account-books of an old steward, which I looked over likewise,
the name of the jailer, Lorenzo Chiappini, was often written; and I
noticed that before 1773 this person bought his necessary provisions of
the Borghis, by relinquishing a part of his future salary; while, after
that time, he always paid in ready money for corn and wine of the best
quality. These account-books could not now be discovered, because when I
had looked through them I gave them back to the aforesaid steward, who is
no longer living.”
Who could believe that, with no motive, this gentleman could have parted
with papers relating to an inheritance just fallen to him, and which he
had looked into minutely? Still less, who could believe that he could
have destroyed a paper that had so greatly interested him, that he had
read several times, and whose tenor was so deeply graven on his mind?
Nevertheless, in order to prove to me that he now bore me no ill-will, he
bestirred himself to make others speak.
Very soon the voice of the public was quite on my side; every one knew
of Chiappini’s sudden accession of wealth; every one remembered hearing
something about the Signore Joinville and his excessive familiarity.
It was generally assumed that the jailer’s wife, going to her Easter
confession a few days after the exchange, had been ordered by her
director to denounce its principal perpetrator to the Holy Office. It was
said that this Tribunal, having ordered his arrest, the Count had been
warned, and fearing the probably unpleasant results of this order, had
asked and obtained permission to take refuge in a convent at Brisighella
until the storm had blown over.
It was affirmed also that, having ventured to go out for a walk, he was
seized and taken to the Town Hall, where one of his footmen went to spend
three or four days with him, and where he spent money profusely and
recklessly. In conclusion it was added that the Legate of Ravenna, having
sent for him, as he got into his carriage, he was holding in his hand a
paper that he pointed to with a laugh, as if to say—
“I’ve only got to make myself known!”
But I was not satisfied by these vague, general reports; I wanted
witnesses who had seen with their own eyes and heard with their own ears;
and I succeeded in discovering them.
Not to speak of the sisters Bandini, who related what happened in the
bosom of the families into which they were admitted as confidential
servants, or of Count Borghi, who quoted in support of his theory his
careful perusal of certain papers immensely in my favour, this is how the
Signore Giovanni-Maria Valla, of Brisighella, spoke on the subject—
“It is more than fifty years since I was enrolled in the Country Militia.
Shortly afterwards, when I had already risen to the rank of Corporal,
I was put in charge of a stranger called by the title of Comte, whom
the constables had taken up in the neighbourhood of the Convent of St.
Bernard. I did not know the man, who was well-made and rather stout, with
a reddish-brown complexion.
“It was said that the order for his arrest came from Ravenna; but I know
nothing about the reason for it nor anything else about him, except that
a few days later we gave him up again to the Cardinal’s Swiss guards, who
took him away in his carriage. As for Lorenzo Chiappini, I knew him very
well, having seen him several times at Brisighella, where he used to come
to play football, and I remember having heard it said that he had given
up his post because he had got a great lot of money for exchanging his
boy for the girl of a rich nobleman.”
And again, this is what the Signore Giuseppe Guezzani, of the same town,
said—
“My business has always been that of a barber, and I always served the
Fathers of St. Bernard until they were suppressed. It is about fifty
years since I used occasionally to shave a stranger living with them, who
passed for a great French nobleman. I was left in ignorance as to who he
was or why he was there. Afterwards I heard that he had been arrested,
but I was never told the reason. He was rather stout, of good height, and
had a brownish complexion with a red and pimply nose. I remember, too,
that he had very fine legs.”
And this is the account of the Signore Giuseppe Tondini, another
inhabitant of the town—
“About fifty years ago a foreign nobleman was living for some days in the
convent of St. Bernard then existing in this town of Brisighella. I don’t
know to what nation he belonged, and I don’t remember him well enough to
describe him; but I think he was about the average height and rather
stout. It was reported afterwards that he had been arrested.”
Then there is the story of the Signore Ludovichetti, a lawyer living at
Ravenna—
“Some length of time before the changes in this province—I can’t tell the
exact date, but it was certainly during the time I was practising in the
Criminal Court of that Legation, which was from 1768 to 1793—being about
one o’clock one day in the said Court, I heard that a foreign nobleman of
exalted rank had been arrested, and was being brought to our prison under
an escort of soldiers. His Eminence, being told of his arrival, had him
at once brought before him. Moved by curiosity, I left my office and went
into the Cardinal-Legate’s room, and there I saw that when this nobleman
appeared, his Eminence went forward to meet him, embraced him, and led
him into his own apartments. A good half-hour later, having gone back to
my work, I heard the carriage; and looking out of the window, I saw the
said nobleman get into it, and it crossed the square in the direction of
the Adrian Gate by which it had entered. I don’t know who he was or where
he came from, nor do I know where or why he was arrested. But he was
said to be a great French personage.”
Having heard these eye-witnesses, let us listen to others whose
reputations make them worthy of full belief.
Let us listen to the Signore Domenico della Valle, Secretary to the
parish of Brisighella—
“Though very intimate with one of the Fathers of St. Bernard, I never
heard him say a word about the exchange in question. But I can vouch
for the fact that before 1790 I had heard the fact much talked about by
several persons, and especially by the late Maestro don Giovanni-Batista
Tondini, who seemed to know all about it. He told me that the thing
had taken place about fifty years ago in the little town of Modigliana
between a great French nobleman living in the Pretorial Palace, who
had exchanged his daughter for the son of a certain Chiappini, then a
constable, and whom I knew very well later on when he used to come to
Brisighella to play football as an amateur. About twenty-five years ago
I again saw, in the piazza of the Grand Duke, the said Chiappini, who
talked for a long time with the late Cesare Bandini of Veriolo, who was
with me. When that gentleman came back to me, I said to him: ‘You have
been talking to a man I know to have exchanged his boy for the daughter
of a great French nobleman.’ And Bandini replied, ‘Yes, that’s the man,
and we were talking privately about that business.’
“I can say for certain that Chiappini was well dressed then, and I was
told he was in easy circumstances, and had no need to follow his original
occupation.
“After the suppression of the monastery of St. Bernard, I was employed
in helping to make an inventory of papers and effects belonging to
it. As I could speak French, they made me read two letters written in
that language. They were addressed to the Father Abbot, signed L. C.
Joinville, and bore the date of 1773; but I can’t remember what day or
what month.
“In the first, written from Modigliana, there were thanks to that Father
for having allowed him to take refuge in his convent; and in the second,
written from Ravenna, he informed him that he had been set at liberty
after having been arrested and taken to that town, and thanked him for
all the attention he had shown him. These letters were written in a
running and uneven hand; if I could see another written by the same
person I should probably recognize it.
“The brothers of St. Bernard had themselves told me that the Count was
taken up one morning when he had gone out for a walk with a book; and
they added that their Abbot, looking upon this arrest as a violation of
a sacred sanctuary, had been to Ravenna to lodge a complaint, and had
obtained satisfaction.
“There was nothing entered in the inventory but the title-deeds of the
capital and interest of the convent; the letters and other papers were
left as being of no use; no one looked after them, and I don’t know if
they are still in existence.”