FROM VALET TO PRINCE.

Golden Bay Argus, Volume VII, Issue 68, 19 September 1901, Page 3

FROM VALET TO PRINCE.

A REMARKABLE CAREER. There are few, if any, stories moi remarkable than that told of Camillo Yen tura, who a few years ago was a domestic servant, and is now the Prince of Caroviquo at the age of thirty-one. Camillo is the son of a Trieste porter, and was born in tbe lowest stratum of Italian life. At an early age he went into domestic service, and, gifted with a handsome exterior and engaging manners, rose to be the valet of Count Kufstein. The Count's wife, by birth a Princess Odescalchi, and a member of the highest Roman aristocracj', smitten by the charms of the handsome valet, fell in love with him. In a weak moment she made over to him about £160,000, the bulk of her private fortune, and, having secured her money, the ambitious valet turned his back on the Princess and sought new fields to conquer. His ambition was to secure a title, and he found the task an easy one. A destitute Italian Prince, the Prince of Caroviquo, was induced to adopt him as his sjn for. £1,600 in cash and a pension of £2 a week. Thus the porter's son, at the age of thirtyone, had blossomed into a prince and a recognised member of one of the noblest of Italian families. Here his good fortune seems to have deserted him for a time. By wholesale bribery he has been elected a member of the Chamber of Deputies no fewer than five times, and as many times the Chamber has refused to admit him. What the future of this adventurous young man may be can scarcely be conjectured ; but it is to be expected that a man who was a valet in the twenties and a prince in the thirties will reach a high station.