XXXIII. Bandits romains
XXXIII. Roman Bandits
Algeria's trade expansion, General Prim's trial in Spain, and executions in Barcelona dominate this issue.
- Algeria's commerce grew from 19 million francs in 1835 to nearly 85 million in 1843, with the port of Algiers alone handling 206,000 tons and 48.7 million francs of goods.
- General Prim stands accused of conspiring to assassinate General Narvaez: three witnesses say he handed over loaded blunderbusses expressly for the killing, and the public prosecutor has demanded the death penalty.
- Four condemned men were shot on the Rambla in Barcelona on 30 October, escorted by the Confraternity of the Blood bearing a great crucifix, as Brigadier Rubin de Celis and Colonel Caro were simultaneously arrested.
- The self-described professional thief 'Mardochée' was caught prowling a Passy garden at night and boasted to his captor of stealing Lord C.'s silver, three months of burglaries, and a lifetime of convictions.
- At La Calle in Algeria, two Arabs shot and killed paymaster-adjutant Theurkauff and gravely wounded adjutant Lhodez without apparent motive; the timing at the end of Ramadan and the richness of the assassins' dress suggest fanaticism.
- A panic cry of 'The vault is collapsing!' during All Saints' Day Vespers at Mortagne left six women trampled — one eight months pregnant — though the vault was intact; the same church saw identical panic thirty-two years earlier.
- At the Théâtre-Italien, audiences rioted for forty-five minutes demanding the suppressed Act III duet from Lucia di Lammermoor; tenor Mario finally appeared with Ronconi but declared himself unable to sing, and the opera ended without its finale.
- Historian Michel Chevalier argues Prescott's History of the Conquest of Mexico surpasses the Iliad as raw material: Cortez attacked an empire of millions with 503 soldiers, 16 horses, and 10 cannon, and conquered it in under thirty months.