This section is from the book "Lake Como - John L. Stoddard's Lectures", by John L. Stoddard. Also available from Amazon: John L. Stoddard's Lectures 13 Volume Set.
Ch1ldren Of Lake Como.
Discussing Future Silks.
A Lakeside Restaurant.
Along Lake Como's western bank, between Menaggio and Gravedona, winds a magnificent carriage-road, called the Strada Regina. In many places hewn from the solid rock, piercing the promontories, and guarded by substantial parapets, it does not much resemble the historic path which men used far above it on the cliffs a hundred years ago. In 1799, when revolutionary France was struggling, single-handed, against allied Europe, a portion of Suwaroff's army tried to make its way along this precipice. Worn slightly in its savage slope, one saw here then a treacherous trail, at best fit only for a mule. Yet on this narrow ledge the daring Russians fearlessly advanced. Success rewarded most of them; but some, whose horses reared in fright, slipped down the sheer declivity, together with their plunging steeds, and perished in the lake. Yet when did difficulties such as these ever dismay that darling of the Cossacks? No general was ever braver, and none more reckless of his men and beasts, than that intrepid Russian, who frequently, before a battle, issued to his soldiers words like these: "God wills, the Emperor orders, and Suwaroff commands that to-morrow the enemy be conquered! " Occasionally his troops would mutiny, refusing to encounter some terrific storm, or venture on some break-neck path; but he would then command them to prepare a grave, and, flinging himself into it, would ask them to obey him, or abandon him.
Magdalen, By Canova. Villa Carlotta.
Menaggio And The Strada Regina.
Where The Russians Fell.
The Modern Road.
The same result invariably followed. His eloquence was irresistible. His men were hypnotized. With shouts of loyalty they yielded to the magic of his words and magnetism of his presence, and swore to follow him to death. So well in this case did they keep their promise, that in three months Suwaroff made himself the master of the Lombard plains, and swept the French from Piedmont to the summits of the Alps, depriving thus the young Republic of everything that Bonaparte had gained for it in Italy. Meanwhile - with no prevision of Napoleon's return from Egypt and his recovery of Italy at Marengo by one master stroke - Suwaroff made his entry into Milan as conqueror; and his delighted Tsar not only granted him for his Italian victories the honorary name of Italienski, but specially decreed that everywhere in Russia he should be regarded as the greatest general that ever lived! One prominent feature of the Strada Regina is a venerable fortress, towering high above a town, now called Rezzonico. In the soft transformation wrought by the Italian tongue, this word is said to be derived from Rhae-tionicum. This, if correct, would lead one to suppose that here was once a settlement of Rhaetians- that warlike, predatory race which had its home in what are now known as the Enga-dine and the Tyrol, and extended even as far south as the lakes of Como and Garcia.
Rezzon1co.
Down the Maloja and the Splugen passes, now yearly traversed by so many modern tourists on their way to St. Moritz and Davos, those Rhaetians often swept destructively upon the Roman world, until Tiberius and Drusus, stepsons of Augustus, fifteen years before Christ, completely conquered them, and brought their territory under the aegis of the empire. It is quite probable, therefore, that this town was one of the most southern stations of the Rhaetians. To the great castle-tower, frowning from the height, is doubtless due the name of the illustrious family of Delia Torre di Rezzonico, whose best-known scion, Carlo, became in 1758 Pope Clement XIII. All who have walked through the superbly ornamented side-aisles of Saint Peter's church at Rome will recollect the finest of its papal tombs, - that of this saintly pontiff, - the masterpiece of Ca-nova. Few occupants of St. Peter's chair have had so stormy a career and so sad an end as Carlo di Rezzonico. Exceptionally pious, kind, and gentle, by some strange irony of fate his reign of eleven years was one incessant strife with the great Catholic countries, Portugal, France, and Spain, which had determined to suppress the Jesuits in their dominions. Clement XIII., however, espoused the cause of the persecuted Order, and fought for it to the last a losing and disheartening battle. At length the pressure put upon him by the Powers proved irresistible, and he perceived that, if he would not wreck the papacy, he must yield. It is believed that he was about to issue a decree unfavorable to the Jesuits, and certainly he had summoned a Consistory to meet him on the third of February, 1769. The meeting never took place. On the morning of the second of February the pope was in his usual health and celebrated mass. In the evening he was suddenly seized with spasms of atrocious pain, and in a short time was no more. So grave were the suspicions of foul play that an autopsy was demanded and performed, with the result that Clement XIII. was officially stated to have died from a dilated artery near the heart. Many, however, remained unconvinced, asserting that his symptoms did not indicate an aneurism, but that his terrible convulsions and excruciating pains were proof of poison. The actual facts will probably never be known, and Clement XIII.'s death is doubtless destined to remain one of the mysteries of history.
 
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