* From No. 3 Despatch, in Official Documents.
“The story of the young men is so candidly told, and they appear, from the tenor of another letter which has been shown to me, to be such well-conditioned and inoffensive persons, that I cannot question the truth of their statement, or entertain any doubt that a cowardly and cruel injury has been inflicted on the elder of them.” The following are the facts of the case as detailed by the young gentleman himself to M. Salvagnoli, the distinguished Tuscan lawyer, and which were afterwards confirmed, in every point, by the evidence of Italian and French witnesses who saw the deed committed.
STATEMENT OF MR. ERSKINE MATHER TO M. SALVAGNOLI.*
* From 2 in No. 13, Official Papers
On the 29th of December, 1851, my brother and I set out to go and breakfast at a café in the Piazza del Duomo.
Passing by the Piazza San Marco we stopped to look at the band of the regiment, and other soldiers standing about; after waiting three or four minutes we passed on, leaving them still there. When we arrived about the middle of the Via Langa we again heard the music, and, as they were marching the same way, we walked on their right hand nearly to the end of the Via Martelli. That street being very narrow, as you are aware, and at this time rendered more so by a carriage passing along, as our café was on the other side we were obliged to cross between the band and the guard, where they had left a space of about forty or fifty feet, and many other persons were crossing at the same time. While walking arm in arm with my brother I suddenly received a violent blow on my back, making me turn short round. I then perceived that it was given by the officer in advance of the guard, who held in his hand his naked sword, with the flat edge of which he had struck me.
I asked him somewhat angrily, but without threat or gesticulation, in the best Italian I knew, why he had struck me, using nearly these words, “Perche m’aveti dato questo?’” While I was speaking to the officer I was suddenly interrupted by another person, dressed in the Austrian uniform, who placed himself between the officer and me, at the same time giving me a blow in the face which drew blood. The blow made me start and fall back; before I could recover myself I received another cut, on the head, from the first officer, which stunned me; it passed through my hat, making a wound nearly three inches and a half in length, and down to the bone, causing the blood to flow violently.
A short time after I begged my brother to follow the officer, that he might recognise him; and I was taken to the hospital of Santa Maria Nuova, where I was obliged to remain three weeks before I could return home. As it has been said that I used threatening language to the officer after the first blow, I solemnly assure you that it is utterly false and without foundation, which the following reasons will prove:—
1st. It is impossible to believe that I could for a single instant have contemplated an act so full of folly and madness, as alone, and, unarmed, to threaten a man with his sword in hand, at the head of a large body of men by whom he was supported.