Prisoners, Three

Three prisoners captured by the French at Lunigiano and Fivizzano, who are led by French soldiers through the streets of Florence and released by the exasperated populace. As they escape in different directions, the oldest, Baldassarre Calvo, accidentally comes upon his ungrateful son, Tito Melema, who refuses to recognize him. "In the van of the crowd were three men in scanty clothing; each had his hands bound together by a cord, and a rope was fastened round his neck and body, in such a way that he who held the extremity of the rope might easily check any rebellious movement by the threat of throttling. The men who held the ropes were French soldiers, and by broken Italian phrases and strokes from the knotted end of the rope, they from time to time stimulated their prisoners to beg." The three prisoners were real, and an account of their release by the populace and their escape through the city is given in Villari's Savonarola. The only fictitious things in George Eliot's account are her making Baldassarre Calvo one of the prisoners and his subsequent encounter with Tito Melema.

<em>Romola</em>

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