A NEAPOLITAN TRAGEDY

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13595, 15 May 1908, Page 7

A NEAPOLITAN TRAGEDY

The mysterious disappearance of £12,000

worth ol heirloom jewels, together with all tlio litlo deed's of the ancient Neapolitan tlm-al family of Laurilo Monforte, has put. the. Naples police mi tin: I rack <if a whole seiies ot gravely-suspicious incidents. The old Duke of Monforte expircil suddenly last year at his villa, Lydia, which ho had specially constructed in his youth as a present to hi.s eharniing English bride, Miss Lydia, Berth. Ever since- the wedding day (writes the Rome correspondent of the "Daily Chronicle ") the Duke and Duchess of Monforte had been absolutely boycotted Dy the other branches of the family because Miys Berth, who was of Protestant ancestavy, felt ."he could not conscientiously embrace the Roman Catholic faith, of whicli the Carignani and Montemayor branches of the family were staunch adherents. The Duchess of Monforte was an attractive figure in aristocratic circles, and .she endeared herself to Neapolitans not only by her surpassing' beauty, but by her characteristic beneficence. The last years of her inurried life -were embittered through the intrusion into the ducal palace of a pretty young German governess Earned Francesca Bugner, for whom the duke conceived a i>assionate attachment'. Then the duchess was removed by a, sudden and unaccountable death, while not many months Liter the governess met a similar fate. All this time the duke, being a particularly pious man, and possessing a gorgeous private chapel, had as resident chaplain a friar, who was known as Padre Valeriauo, also a Calabrian yalet, bearing the name Sicialini. The friar and the valet play « big part in the drama, for the police accuse them of having nob merely stolen the Monforte heirlooms and title deeds, but of having poisoned the duchess and the governess, and finally the old man himself. When the duke's relatives, reconciled by .his decease, came from Paris to take possession they were amazed to find the sealed strong room quite empty, though 'the seals were not apparently "tampered with. They tried to keep the affair secret, but the Naples chief of police, after discovering that Padre Valeriano , had pawned £4,000 worth of Monforte jewels at a city bank, pounced upon him while he was visiting •his mistress.

Tho superiors of the Order of San Pasqtiale, to which Valeriano belonged, disclaim responsibility, as they say the friar has lived outside his monastery for over a year on the score oE weak health, and had previously been suspended; as a se- , quel to the discovery of his carrying on an enormous correspondence- with one of his numerous fashionable penitents. Little is known of the aged duke's last days, as after -iliia dual bereavement, he, lived a retired, misanthropic existence. Since the Duke of Monforte's decease the renegade friar had been living iu lirst-class hotels in Naples under the false name of De Angelis. According lo their version, the old duke, just before breathing his list, made a present of all the jewellery ■to Valeriano and the bonda to the valet. Tho valet, needing ready aivouev, handed bonds, of the value of £1,280, "to Valeriano, who paid him out of the proceeds of tho pledged jewels minus £BO, which the friar retained as his own commission on thy transaction. Valeriauo's long cross-examination ended in the confession that he consigned £1,280 in Monforte bonds to a young Taranto count, whom •the police are now tracing. The position of Valeriano has been aggravated through the discovery of varioua property of the lake duke in the friar's cell at the San l'asquale Monastery, as well as at the hotel where he last, sojourned. His story that the duke had bequeathed him £12,000 worth of jewellery is disproved by the discovery of the nobleman's will, dividing the same between his three nephews. The valet was afterwards released, as it appeared from the ducal testament that he had really been left the negotiated bonds.

The police aru pursuing their inquiry into the mysterious deaths of the Monforte- household with unwonted alacrity. The case is the moro extraordinary, as it now transpires that the Duohtee Moufoitc, formerly Miss Lydia Berth, died on •September 18 last year, and then the German governess followed her • to the grave only 18 days later, and before a couple of months had passed the old duke suddenly collapsed, as it was supposed, in a fatal fit of apoplexy.