“As for you,” he says at the end of the will, “you, my good and admirable valet, who have so long taken me for your dupe, you will now learn that it is you who have been mine; when at the conclusion of my dinner you thought I was applauding your economy and your zeal, in carefully putting together the remains of bottles of wine and keeping them for the next meal, it never occurred to you that I was well aware you took for your own use whole bottles. When you came with tearful eyes and coaxing voice to wait on me the moment I was suffering from any trifling indisposition, presenting to me my tisanes with an assumed air of condolence and anxiety, you little thought how my instinct, following you into the servants’ hall, guessed the language in which you expressed yourself there. ‘The old fellow,’ you used to say, ‘can’t last much longer, and then I shall come in for my hard-earned legacy.’
“Well, my dear fellow, I am sorry to tell you this was all a mistake, and you have got to learn that masters are not always so much stupider as you suppose than their servants.
“As for you, my relatives, who have been so long spelling upon this fortune, on which ‘I had concentrated all my affections,’ you are not going to touch a penny of it, and not one of you will be able to boast that you have squandered the millions which the old Marquis d’Aligre had taken so many years to hoard up.”
Cardinal Antonelli’s Will
The great wealth Cardinal Antonelli, who died in 1876, is reported to have left, has aroused special interest with regard to his will, and given rise to endless gossip, not only as to its contents, but concerning the document itself. At first it was reported that it could not be found; then, that it had disappeared in some remarkable manner; that it had been purposely destroyed; that the cardinal had made no will; and many other canards were circulated. Later, however, the Libertà announced that it was in the hands of the public notary in the Piazza San Claudio, where it could be seen, but that only those having a direct interest in its contents could be permitted to examine it. Subsequently the Popolo Romano published the document in extenso, together with the notary’s statement concerning it, as follows:
“REPERTORY NO. 187
“Reigning His Majesty Victor Emmanuel II., by the grace of God and the will of the nation, King of Italy.
“I, the undersigned, public notary, certify that among my acts under the hereafter-inscribed day is to be found the registered report of the deposit of the holograph testament of the defunct Most Eminent Cardinal Giacomo Antonelli, made at the instance of the illustrious advocate, Signor Antonio Bachetoni, to the following effect:
“The year one thousand eight hundred and seventy-six on Thursday, the twenty-third day of the month of November, in Rome. Before me, Scipione Vici, public notary, having my office upon the Piazza San Claudio, No. 93, and inscribed in the Council of Notaries of the district of the Collegio di Roma, assisted by the undersigned witnesses, qualified according to law, and in the presence of the illustrious advocate Signor Enrico Simonetti, Prætor of my mandament, duly executed at his residence, situated in Via Gesù e Maria, No. 28, and of the Signori Jacopini Torollo, son of the late Giovanni Batta, of Arcidosso, in the Province of Grosseto, domiciled Via Orsoline No. 2, and Filippo Ciavambini, son of the late Petito, of Ascoli, domiciled Via de’ Specchi No. 3, both employés, has personally appeared the illustrious advocate Antonio Bachetoni, son of the late Giovanni, native of Spoleto, domiciled in Rome, in Via del Corso No. 509, of full age, being juridically qualified, and known to me, notary, who, in consequence of express instructions received from the noble Signori Conti Gregorio, Angelo, and Luigi Antonelli, brothers german, has applied to me to deposit with me notary, certain papers, which they assert contain the last testamentary dispositions of the aforesaid defunct Most Eminent and Most Reverend Signor Cardinal Giacomo Antonelli, who passed from among the living on the sixth day of the current November, as results from the certificate of the Board of Health, given the 22nd day of November, 1876, and which I insert (Appendix No. 1). Wherefore, in presence of the aforesaid Signor Prætor and of the aforesaid witnesses, he has consigned to me an open envelope, on the outside of which was found written, ‘Testament of Cardinal Giacomo Antonelli,’ and having examined the contents of the same, they were found to consist of two sheets of paper folded in quarto, and another small envelope, of which the requisite description will be made in its proper place. Opening the two sheets, it was found that they were in one handwriting and consisted of six pages written throughout, and the seventh upon the half only, followed by the date ‘Rome, January 18, 1871,’ and by the signature ‘G. Card. Antonelli.’ On the third page an interlineation of fifteen words was observed, and on the fifth and seventh pages the insertion of a word in each without any marginal note or erasure, as follows:
“‘WILL OF CARDINAL GIACOMO ANTONELLI