Note 29 — GABRIELE ROSSETTI

Gaetano Vardarelli, with his two brothers, commanded a formidable band of brigands (who may or may not have been Carbonari): the whole band was generally called the Vardarelli. In July 1817 the Government entered into a dishonouring compromise with these brigands; but soon afterwards, at Ururi, slaughtered the three Vardarelli and others by treachery, and, later on, others of the disbanded band at Foggia, and the remainder underwent military execution. A grimly Italian incident accompanied the massacre of the brothers Vardarelli. One of the brothers had outraged the sister of a man from Porto-Cannone. This man dipped his hands repeatedly in the blood gushing from the corpse, washed his face in it, and cried to the multitude, “L’ho purgata” (I’ve washed it clean).—W.