These excited patriots, delirious with joy that at last their own town
was in their hands, did not set Rieka on fire, nor did they murder women
and children; but the Italianists forthwith sent wireless messages to
Venice, screaming that all these enormities were taking place. A few of
them rushed off in motors to Triest, where they made themselves into a
Committee of Public Safety, picked up some Triest sympathizers and flew
on to Venice, where they related breathless stories of foul deeds. One,
which appeared in the Italian Press, was that three children of Rieka
had been publicly committed to the flames.