, to whom the proud Francis
I. of France was obliged to surrender and give up his sword at the battle
of Pavia. Besides these Neapolitan noblemen who have enlisted of late as
privates, the Italian army now encamped on the banks of the Po and of the
Mincio may boast of two Colonnas, a prince of Somma, two Barons Renzi, an
Acquaviva, of the Duke of Atri, two Capece, two Princes Buttera, etc. To
return to the mission of Colonel Bariola and the Duke of Sant' Arpino, I
will add some details which were told me this morning by a gentleman who
left Cremona yesterday evening, and who had them from a reliable source.
The messenger of General Lamarmora had been directed to proceed from
Cremona to the small village of Le Grazie, which, on the line of the
Mincio, marks the Austrian and Italian frontier.
On the right bank of the Lake of Mantua, in the year 1340, stood a small
chapel containing a miraculous painting of the Madonna, called by the
people of the locality 'Santa Maria delle Grazie.' The boatmen and
fishermen of the Mincio, who had been, as they said, often saved from
certain death by the Madonna--as famous in those days as the modern Lady
of Rimini, celebrated for the startling feat of winking her
eyes--determined to erect for her a more worthy abode.
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