Mackey – Encyclopedia Of Freemasonry Vol. 1

THE CARBONARI 169authorities intended to begin his trial, he wrote to Bubnathat he was determined to make his escape. Orders weresent to watch him closely ; but within a week he was inpossession of false keys, which fitted all the doors of hisprison, and the head gaoler, who had shown himself toozealous in watching him, was transferred to Mantua, and1200 lire were provided for his journey . He escaped toGenoa, intending thence to sail for Spain, where he wassure of meeting with friends, but finding all vessels boundfor that country under close police surveillance, he made hisway into Switzerland . Under different 'names and variousdisguises he stayed there and in Germany for about a year .All the German Governments offered a large reward for hisapprehension, and at last he was seized at Bayreuth, thoughhe had previously been warned that the police were on histraces, a warning which could only have come from highlyplacedofficials . And as soon as he was taken some of themwaited on him with offers of friendship and protection . ButBerlin was then the seat of the Prussian masonic chiefs,and through them De Witt was secretly, informed of all thecharges which would be brought against him, and the resultwas that he was acquitted of them all, and restored toliberty, as also was Cousin, a fellow-conspirator and fellowprisoner. Cesare Cantu, the Italian historian, accuses DeWitt of having, by his own admission, been thoroughlyinitiated into all the revolutionary plots in Europe but inorder to betray them, and stir up discord among them (seeIl Conciliatore e i Carbonari, Milano, 1878, p . 164) . DeWitt's subsequent career seems to lend some support to thischarge . In 1828 he married a wealthy lady, and purchasedan estate in Upper Silesia, where he was living in 1855,professing highly conservative principles, in fact, to sucha degree as to be charged with belonging to the Ultramontanes,in consequence of which he was detested, andfrequently attacked, by the democratic party .556. Carbonaro Charter proposed to England .-A charteror project, said to have been proposed by the Carbonari tothe English Government in 1813, when the star of Napoleonwas fast declining, is to the following effect :-Italy shall befree and independent . Its boundaries shall be the threeseas and the Alps . Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, the sevenislands, and the islands along the coasts of the Mediterranean,Adriatic, and Ionian Seas shall form an integralportion of the Roman Empire . Rome shall be the capital ofthe empire . . . . As soon as the French shall have evacuatedsi