PADU A.

BY MRS. BUSHBY.

ADUA, Padova la dotta, acquired its proud designation of learned, during that period when Italy, though it had declined in power, in prowess, and in military glory, still retained its pre-eminence in learning and the fine arts; when, though the warlike spirit which had alike subjugated neighbouring nations and distant lands, had become faint and feeble, or had spent its dying energies only in petty intestine broils; yet its men of science, its historians, its poets, took the lead in Europe, and shed their brilliant light over a country studded with imposing mementos of ancient grandeur. It was at that period when Rome was no longer the name of names in Italy, that "fair Padua," that "nursery of arts," acquired its scholastic fame.

The University of Padua, one of the most ancient in Italy, was founded in the twelfth century, and was resorted to by students from many other nations. But the original town itself was of infinitely older date, its foundation being attributed to Antenor, after the siege and fall of Troy. It became subsequently subject to Rome, with which it remained connected for a long course of time. It was afterwards taken and sacked first by Alaric, and secondly by Attila, during the fifth century; but was rebuilt by Narses in 550. Destroyed again by the Lombards towards the close of the seventh century, it was restored by Charlemagne in the year 788; and rose to a high degree of splendour under the kings who were his successors.

In process of time, Padua became one of the Free Cities of Italy, and took its share in the wars and vicissitudes which marked the history of the Italian republics in the Middle Ages. In the twelfth century, it appears as joining the Lombard League; having, along with Verona, Vicenza, and Treviso, engaged itself to resist the usurped prerogatives of Frederic Barbarossa; but in the following century it unhappily fell under the yoke of Eccelino, Marquis di Romano, who subjected its inhabitants to the most cruel oppression.

This remarkable man was one of the most blood-thirsty monsters

that ever lived. Nature had endowed him with rare talents, and great courage, both of which he employed in establishing a system of tyranny, which had hardly ever been equalled in Italy, or indeed in any other part of the world. The cruel acts of a Nero or a Robespierre may alone be compared with the deeds of this wicked tyrant; on whom the age in which he lived bestowed the name of "the Ferocious."

ECCELINO, third Marquis of Romano, the rival of Azzo, seventh Marquis of Este, was the partisan of the Emperor Frederic II., grandson to Frederic Barbarossa, and was one of the most powerful supporters of the Ghibelin party in Lombardy. His authority extended over Verona, Vicenza, Padua, Belluna, &c., &c., and the adjacent country; and his paternal property included all the territory at the foot of the Euganean hills. Unfortunately for the inhabitants of Padua, which was then a republic of some consequence, and under the mild government of Don Jordan, an ecclesiastic, Prior of St. Benedict, the animosity between its Guelph and Ghibelin families, favoured the designs of Eccelino, who was received into the town as the emperor's deputy.

It was remarked, when he approached with his German troops to take possession of the place, that, throwing back his iron helmet, and bending forward over the neck of his charger, he kissed the gate of the city. It was no kiss of peace; no symbol of good-will; for, from the moment in which he found his power established, his persecutions began; and, after a time, he spared neither foe nor friend; neither age nor sex. The chiefs of families, nay, often entire families, were imprisoned, or put to death, while their property was confiscated, and their dwellings were destroyed. Rolandini-one of the historians of the period-relates, that at the expiration of the tyrant's rule, more than half of the palaces of Padua were but heaps of ruins. Many of his victims, clothed in black robes, were dragged to the place of public execution, and there beheaded. Many more expired amidst lingering tortures; and the prisons were not large enough to hold the prodigious number of persons arrested by order of Eccelino. He constructed new ones at Padua; the miserable inmates of which perished amidst profound darkness, a prey to hunger, thirst, and noxious animals.

It would be too revolting to give a detailed recital of the atrocities of a man who caused torrents of blood to flow in all the towns which had submitted to his authority. One or two instances will suffice to show what a scourge he was. A few Latin lines imprudently applied

in ridicule or blame of the tyrant, constituted a crime, punished not only by the death of the individual who had repeated them, but of all those who had seemed to applaud them. These persons were twelve in number; and their wives, their children, and their other near relations, were all immured in dungeons. The whole of the noble family of the Dulesmanini, one of the richest and most powerful of the Ghibelin party, and a family which had been devoted to the house of Romano, were put to death, because a lady connected with that family had married a gentleman belonging to the party of the Count San Bonifazio, who was at variance with the Marquis Eccelino! It is related of him, that he had eleven thousand Paduan soldiers, belonging to his own army, put to death because he suspected their fidelity!

After the death of the emperor, Frederic II., Eccelino considered himself an independent sovereign; and gave, if possible, still more licence to his savage disposition. But an end was at length put to his frightful career. Alexander IV., previously Bishop of Ostia, preached, shortly after he was raised to the pontificate, a crusade against the tyrant of Padua. In his circular-letters to the Free Towns, to the nobles, and to the bishops of Italy, he denominated the Marquis di Romano "a son of perdition ;" and called on all good Christians to pursue "with spiritual and temporal arms," Eccelino and his perfidious associates.

The crusaders, however, being conducted by an ignorant and pusillanimous archbishop, failed of success; and the tyrant owed his downfall to the united efforts of Azzo d'Este; the Count di San Bonifazio; the Marquis Oberto Palavicino; and Buoso di Doaro; the two latter having been allies, whom his treachery and cruelty had lost to him. Eccelino fought with his usual bravery, but his troops were more inclined to desert him than to defend his cause; and his own superstitious fears were, perhaps, against him. He had no religious faith; but he believed in astrology; and astrologers had bid him beware of the BRIDGE OF CASSANO.* On approaching that spot, and hearing it named, he was observed to tremble; not long afterwards he fell from his horse, severely wounded; was made prisoner; and died after a few days' captivity.

Strange, that a being who had set at defiance all the laws both of God and man; whose criminal career proved, that he was insensible to the

• The astrologers were tolerably safe in their warning; for they had bidden the tyrant beware not only of Cassano, but of Bassano, and of every place the name of which had a similar termination.

fear of punishment in eternity; should quail beneath the fancied influence of the stars; and tremble at a name pronounced by impostors! But so it was. For those "who have gone in the way of Cain," there "is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever;" and the Marquis di Romano's mind, however clear and strong originally, must indeed have been darkened, before he became the slave of such credulity.

Possibly one cause of Eccelino's extreme ferocity was his never having felt the softening influence of female companionship. He never married, and was always remarkable for his dislike of women of all ranks and classes.

The moment the death of Eccelino became known-(it took place in 1259)-all the towns which had been under his sway hastened to expel his satellites, and to throw open the crowded prisons. It was a painful spectacle to behold their liberated inmates. Hundreds of men whose strength had been withered by the sufferings they had undergone; of aged people; of delicate young girls; of children, even; all of whom had been treated in those dismal dungeons with more or less barbarity, came forth, looking, with their wan and spectral aspects, like accusing spirits against him who had gone, with his numerous unrepented sins upon his soul, to stand at the bar of his Eternal Judge.

Eccelino's brother, Alberie, who had followed closely in his fearful footsteps, was, along with his wife, his six sons, and two daughters, chased from Treviso, where he had been governor; and they were all put to death by the crusaders, who had determined upon the total extinction of the impious race. On the fall of the house of Romano, peace was restored throughout Lombardy and the neighbouring states; and a benign Providence mercifully permitted good to spring from the past evil; for the hatred and jealousy which had previously existed between the factions of the Guelphs and Ghibelins had been forgotten in their common dread of the tyrant, Eccelino. The people wondered why they had been so bitter against each other, and the memory of their sufferings became the bond of their unity.

For upwards of fifty years Padua preserved its recovered liberty; and during this period of internal and external peace, its university became famous; and it gave several distinguished historians to Italy. But stability in well-doing is rare at all times in this world; and was especially rare during the feverish state of society which existed in the Middle Ages. Mutual jealousies sprang up between the nobles and the people; and after much discord, and many changes in the adminis