CHAPTER XXXVI.

THE STELVIO PASS-THE ORTLER SPITZ-THE VALTELINE.

THE great military road over Mont Stelvio was constructed by the Emperor of Austria, as a new line of communication between his German and Italian states, and as having the advantage of not traversing any portion of territory belonging to another government. From Vienna two roads communicate with this pass, meeting at Prad. Shortly after leaving this village, the road begins to ascend the magnificent mountain of the Ortler Spitz. A little beyond the barrier, this mountain suddenly discloses itself with an appalling effect, as it is seen from its summit to its base robed in everlasting snows, while enormous glaciers, descending from its sides, stream into the valley below the road. Immense masses of rock, in themselves mountains, throw out their black and scathed forms in striking contrast with the brightness of the glaciers which they separate. Mr. Brockedon considers the whole ascent from Drofoi as without a parallel in Alpine scenery.

The road, which is admirably constructed, winds round the northern side of the deep ravine into which the glaciers sink, and so near to them that a stone may, with little effort, be thrown upon them. The summit of this extraordinary pass is the highest that has been made traversible for carriages in the world; it being 9,272 feet above the sea, 780 feet above the line of perpetual snow in this latitude, and nearly half a mile perpendicularly higher than the pass of the Simplon. Yet the road on the summit is usually clear of snow by the end of July, and, except from occasional falls, continues so till September. A descent of 993 feet leads down to the inn and custom-house on the Monte Brauglio, over which there is a passage from the Valteline to the valley of the Adige. This was formerly a line of considerable commerce; but as this route traversed a small part of the territory of the Grisons, the Austrian government made the new road ascend, by the defile of Drofoi, to a col a thousand feet higher.

From the Monte Brauglio, a zigzag road leads down to the Wurmser-loch, a deep and appalling ravine, through which the Adda falls from rock to rock. This was formerly considered one of the most dangerous passes of the Alps, but is now rendered secure by galleries, either excavated in the rock or constructed by masonry. The extent of the road thus sheltered is 2,226 feet, besides 700 feet more so cut out of the side of the mountain as to be sufficiently guarded by the impending rock. This defile leads down to the Valley of Bormio. The little town of that name was formerly enriched by the transit of merchandise from Venice to the Grisons by the old pass. The district of Bormio terminates at the narrow defile of La Sarra, which was then secured by a wall and a gate. Here the traveller leaves behind him the cold region, and descends with the Adda into the rich district of the Val Teline or Valteline.

Valteline is a longitudinal valley on the Italian side of the Rhætian Alps, drained throughout its length by the river Adda. This river rises at the foot of the Stilsfer Joch, over which the new road made by the Austrian government leads from the Tyrol into

Lombardy, across the district of Bormio, or Worms, which lies east of the Valteline, and then entering it at the defile of La Sarra, flows in a general direction from north-east to south-west, until it enters the valley of Como, at the western extremity of the valley. Valtelina Proper is about forty-five miles in length, but including Bormio, which is a continuation of the same valley, it is fifty-five miles in length. It is bounded on the north by the Grisons, the main ridge of the Rhætian Alps dividing the valley of the Adda from that of the Engadine; on the south-east by the Tyrol, from which it is separated by the lofty group of the Ortler and the Stilsfer Joch; on the south by the Lombard provinces of Brescia and Como; and on the west by the upper part of the Lake of Como, and by the district of Chiavenna, with which it is politically united.

Chiavenna consists chiefly of the valley of the Liro, a stream which rises at the foot of Mount Splugen, and, flowing from north to south, joins the Maira, which comes from the Grisons. A few miles lower, the united stream enters the Laghetto, or upper Lake of Como. From the Splugen to the lake is a distance of about twenty miles. The three districts of the Valteline, Bormio, and Chiavenna have been united for ages under the same administration: first under the government of the Grisons, and, since the beginning of the present century, under the government of Lombardy. For this reason they are frequently included in historical archives under the general name of the Valteline.

Under the former government great dissatisfaction long existed, and the crisis of rebellion was accelerated by an act of flagrant injustice. Many inhabitants of the Valteline, suspected of favouring the Spanish court, and particularly those who had opposed with the greatest zeal the introduction of the reformed doctrines, were arrested and conveyed into the country of the Grisons. Mock courts of justice were established in several places, by which the prisoners were fined to a large amount; and some were even sentenced to the torture.

Among the sufferers was Nicholas Rusca, a priest of Sondrio, who had gained the universal esteem of the Catholics by his unremitted resistance to the Protestant doctrines, and who, for the rigid austerity of his manners, was greatly revered by the multitude. A man named Chiappinus, and three gondoliers of Venice, were arrested under the suspicion of a design to assassinate Scipio Calandrinus, the president minister of Sondrio, at the instigation of Rusca; a confession of guilt, and of Rusca's privity, being drawn, under fear of torture, from Chiappinus. The governor of the Valteline referring the matter to the diet of the Grisons, Rusca was cited before that assembly, but declined to appear; either, as his enemies pretended, from a consciousness of guilt, or, as his friends alleged, from a dread of putting himself in the power of the Grisons, so violently incensed against him. Having escaped from the Valteline, he waited at Bedano, where his cause was publicly pleaded before twelve judges deputed by the Grisons. Being acquitted of the charge, he returned to Sondrio, where with zeal, influenced by persecution, he continued to oppose the establishment of a Protestant school at Sondrio-a favourite measure of the opposite party.

His enemies, baffled in their first attempt, brought against him a charge of a more public nature they accused him of opposing the decrees of the Grisons, and of exhorting the inhabitants of Morbegno not to bear arms against the king of Spain, the protector of the Catholic religion. In consequence of these insinuations, a troop of sixty Grisons. arrived at Sondrio by night, and seizing Rusca, carried him to Tersis, where he was not only impeached of high treason in the temporary court of justice then assembled, but, against every principle of equity, was likewise again examined for having abetted the assassination of Calandrinus; and as he peremptorily denied these charges, he was condemned to be tortured, and the horrid sentence was inflicted three times in the dead of night. Extreme suffering failing to extort from him any confession of guilt, he was, on

the following night, twice subjected to the same dreadful agony; and, with a frame that was weak and full of infirmities, he expired amidst the tortures.

The

A spirit of fury was now raised among the people too violent to be appeased. emissaries of Spain did not fail to increase the general ferment, and to suggest the most

plausible motives for immediate insurrection. They represented, that as the Grisons were convulsed by factions, and France disturbed by internal commotions, a most favourable opportunity presented itself to shake off the yoke under which they groaned; and,

aroused by these suggestions, the inhabitants resolved to commence hostilities by a general warfare against the Protestants.

The day appointed for accomplishing this horrid design was the 20th of July, 1620.

In the dead of night, Robustelli, the leader of the conspiracy, accompanied by about a hundred followers, arrived at Tirano, and having assembled the chief Catholics of the place, laid before them the purpose of extirpating the Protestants; and the dreadful