Olga Rudge & Ezra Pound: "What Thou Lovest Well..."

162 The Road to Hell
engagement in the war and the misguided economic policies of the Roosevelt
Administration, were considered treasonous.
At two o’clock on May 7, Amprim called Ezra for yet more questioning.
Afterward, he o√ered to drive Olga to Sant’Ambrogio. At Casa 60, he
rifled hastily through Pound’s papers and took some of the files with him.
‘‘The Major told me I must be prepared to testify in case there was a trial,’’
Olga remembered. He o√ered to carry a few of Ezra’s books back to
Genoa, and restocked Olga’s larder with rare items she had not seen since
the beginning of the war: co√ee, milk, and sugar.
After Amprim’s departure, Olga went downstairs to question Anita,
who told her that the partisans had returned to Casa 60 on the afternoon of
May 3 after Pound had been taken away. When they attempted to get into
Olga’s apartment with ladders, Anita held them o√ until Dorothy Pound
returned from Rapallo. They forced Dorothy to open the door. She was
surprised that the partisans carried away only one old scrapbook of newspaper
clippings, Pound’s articles on political and economic topics from the
Fascist journal Meridiano di Roma. Dorothy’s diary entry for May 3 was
brief: ‘‘They took him away today.’’ Two days later, tired of waiting, she
packed a small suitcase and walked down the salita to stay with Isabel
Pound at Villa Raggio.
At Casa 60, Olga began putting Ezra’s papers in order, hoping to find
something useful for his defense. When Major Amprim returned a week
later, his manner was still relaxed and friendly; he asked if he might stay
for lunch. He was apologetic when Olga said she had only bread and
co√ee with milk from the army commissary. He returned Ezra’s files, but
took the old Model 90 Remington typewriter with the damaged t that Ezra
had been working on. He reminded Olga that no one—not even the next
of kin—could see or communicate with Pound until further notice.
The investigation was continuing. Olga waited for several anxious
weeks with no communication from Ezra. Finally, on the morning of
May 24, when she telephoned the CIC to inquire, the o≈cer in charge
told her that Pound had left under armed guard that same morning—
destination unknown! Two days later she received a typewritten note
dated May 24, postmarked Genoa: ‘‘Ziao . . . Talk is that I may go to