The Chartreuse of Parma (The Charterhouse of Parma)

MP3 Audio CD. CHAPTER I



Milan in 1796

On the 15th of May, 1796, General Bonaparte entered Milan at the head of this young army which had just crossed the bridge of Lodi, and to teach the world that after so many centuries Caesar and Alexander had a successor. The miracles of bravery and genius which Italy witnessed in a few months awakened a sleeping people; Eight days before the arrival of the French, the Milanese saw in them only a bunch of brigands, accustomed to flee always before the troops of His Imperial and Royal Majesty: at least that was repeated to them three times a week a little newspaper as big as your hand, printed on dirty paper.

In the Middle Ages, the Republican Lombards had shown bravery equal to that of the French, and they deserved to see their city completely razed by the German emperors. Since they had become faithful subjects, their great business was to print sonnets on small handkerchiefs of pink taffeta when the marriage of a girl belonging to some noble or rich family arrived. Two or three years after this great epoch of her life, this young girl was taking a horseman serving: sometimes the name of the sigisbee chosen by the husband's family occupied an honorable place in the marriage contract. There was a long way from these effeminate manners to the profound emotions which the unexpected arrival of the French army gave. Soon new and passionate manners arose. On May 15, 1796, an entire people noticed that all that he had respected until then was supremely ridiculous and sometimes odious. The departure of the last regiment of Austria marked the fall of ancient ideas: to expose his life became fashionable; we saw that, in order to be happy after centuries of shattering sensations, one had to love the fatherland of a real love and seek heroic deeds.