Page:Enterprise and Adventure.djvu/212

188 property was renewed, and his younger brother, a mere youth, was peremptorily required to serve in his stead. To surrender himself was almost certain death, so severe were the French military laws against obstinate deserters. But at last the French soldiers discovered his lurking place, and suddenly made him their prisoner. Chained to twenty other deserters he was then ordered to march, their destination being Venice, where it was fully expected that he would be brought to a military tribunal and condemned to death. It happened, however, that the Emperor Napoleon had just arrived in that city on a short visit, and to this fortunate coincidence Finati attributed the general act of grace under which his life was spared, though condemned for some time to submit to a degrading punishment. This punishment ended, the young student of theology finally relinquished all hope of being able to follow his original profession, and, though hating still the oppression of his French masters, determined to make the best of a military life; but dreams of escape from his present position haunted him, and his parents being now beyond the reach of their persecutors, he resolved to watch for another opportunity. The regiment in which he served being ordered to join the army in Montenegro under General Marmont, this opportunity at length presented itself. A conspiracy was formed for the purpose among the Italians in the regiment, and at a preappointed time the party, numbering sixteen in all, and including the sergeant and his wife, contrived to slip away unperceived by their comrades and betook themselves to the mountains. By midnight they had reached the frontier of Albania, where, passing