_Pallavicino and Count d'Olivarez_ (Vol. iii., p. 478.)--Ferrante
Pallavicino was descended from a noble family, seated in Placenza. He
entered the monastery of Augustine Friars at Milan, where he became a
regular canon of the Lateran congregation. He was a man of fine genius,
and possessed great wit, but having employed it in writing several
satirical pieces against Urban VIII. during the war between the
Barberini and the Duke of Parma and Placenza, he became so detested at
the court of Rome, that a price was set on his head. One Charles Morfu,
a French villain, was bribed to ensnare him, and pretending to pass for
his friend and pity his misfortunes, persuaded him to go to France,
which he said would be much to his advantage. Pallavicino gave himself
up entirely to the direction of this false friend, who conducted him
over the bridge at Sorgues into the territory of Venaissin, where he was
arrested by people suborned for that purpose, was carried to Avignon,
thrown into a dungeon, from which he tried to make his escape, and in
the year 1644, after a fourteen months' imprisonment, was beheaded in
the flower of his age. He was the author of a number of small pieces,
all of which are marked by the lively genius of the author. They were
collected and published at Venice in 1655, and amongst them I found one
entitled "La disgracia del Conte d'Olivarez," which, perhaps, may be the
work Mr. Souley has in MS.
For a more lengthy account of this unhappy and extraordinary man, I
would refer Mr. Souley to the life prefixed to his collected works, and
to that prefixed to a French translation of his _Divortio celeste_,
printed at Amsterdam in 1696; and also to the preface to the English
translation of that same very curious work, printed at London in 1718.