DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.67375#0160
118
NAPLES AND ITS ENVIRONS.
in the convent of S. Maria la Nuova. A party of attack
was organized, and difficult as was the ascent of the
height over the steep, slippery ways that led to the mon-
astery, four hundred armed men soon surrounded it.
Finding the gates closed, they set fire to them, thus forcing
the monks to throw them open. The mob soon filled the
corridors and refectory, crying out for the chief of the
bandits.
A well-known servant of Carafa was discovered, which
convinced the people that his master was not far away;
but during the few moments gained by closing the gates
the relatives of the Duke had fled by a back way into a
mean street, and the Prior reached a house where he
dressed himself in the garb of a woman and so escaped to
safety. Giuseppe Carafa was less fortunate. He soon
realized that he was pursued, and ran into the cottage
of a low woman, who made a feint of concealing him
while in the act of betraying him, in spite of his promises
of untold treasures if she but saved his life. He was
seized and dragged away; and though he offered twenty
thousand ducats for his life, no one listened, and he was
murdered in the Piazza del Cerrigl.io,— a place of bad
omen, where the crown fell from the head of Louis of
Taranto when on his way to the coronation of Joanna I.,
— and his head severed from his body, while all sorts of
horrible indecencies were perpetrated on his corpse. He
was the first noble slain in this rebellion, and few were
more hated; he was of a rash temper, and had committed
many crimes himself, besides employing others to do des-
perate deeds for him. Masaniello made an address to the
pallid head, and had it set up in the centre of the market-
place, with seventeen others, above which was a tablet
inscribed “ This is the penalty for Traitors. ”
Masaniello gave Michele de Santis, who had cut off the
head of Carafa, a thousand ducats, and promised four
NAPLES AND ITS ENVIRONS.
in the convent of S. Maria la Nuova. A party of attack
was organized, and difficult as was the ascent of the
height over the steep, slippery ways that led to the mon-
astery, four hundred armed men soon surrounded it.
Finding the gates closed, they set fire to them, thus forcing
the monks to throw them open. The mob soon filled the
corridors and refectory, crying out for the chief of the
bandits.
A well-known servant of Carafa was discovered, which
convinced the people that his master was not far away;
but during the few moments gained by closing the gates
the relatives of the Duke had fled by a back way into a
mean street, and the Prior reached a house where he
dressed himself in the garb of a woman and so escaped to
safety. Giuseppe Carafa was less fortunate. He soon
realized that he was pursued, and ran into the cottage
of a low woman, who made a feint of concealing him
while in the act of betraying him, in spite of his promises
of untold treasures if she but saved his life. He was
seized and dragged away; and though he offered twenty
thousand ducats for his life, no one listened, and he was
murdered in the Piazza del Cerrigl.io,— a place of bad
omen, where the crown fell from the head of Louis of
Taranto when on his way to the coronation of Joanna I.,
— and his head severed from his body, while all sorts of
horrible indecencies were perpetrated on his corpse. He
was the first noble slain in this rebellion, and few were
more hated; he was of a rash temper, and had committed
many crimes himself, besides employing others to do des-
perate deeds for him. Masaniello made an address to the
pallid head, and had it set up in the centre of the market-
place, with seventeen others, above which was a tablet
inscribed “ This is the penalty for Traitors. ”
Masaniello gave Michele de Santis, who had cut off the
head of Carafa, a thousand ducats, and promised four