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 CENEDA CENIS 189 possession of the estates of the Cenci family. The indignation was so strong and so lasting that these estates were finally in part restored to the heirs of Giacomo Oenci. The family assumed the name of Bolognetti in addition to that of Cenci, and for a long time were in- volved in lawsuits with the Borghese family in regard to the Cenci estates. Muratori's " Annals " is one of the authorities in regard to Beatrice Cenci. Her story is told in an article in the " Quarterly Review " (1858) as derived from a contemporary manuscript ; and in the Storia di Beatrice Cenci, by Carlo Tito Dalbo- no (Naples, 1864), the original documents and / judicial proceedings which relate to it are cited. De Custine has founded a drama, Guer- razzi a novel, and Shelley a tragedy upon the story. II processo criminale della Beatrice Cenci, by Antonio Torrignani, in refutation of Guerrazzi's historical romance Beatrice Cen- ci, was published at Florence in 1873. The celebrated portrait of Beatrice, which is said to have been painted by Guido Reni immedi- ately before her execution, is in the Barberini palace at Rome. Its authenticity is doubtful. CENEDA, a town of Italy, in the province and 22 m. 1ST. of Treviso ; pop. about 8,000. It is the see of a bishop, and possesses a cathe- dral, several churches, manufactories of leather, woollens, and paper, and mineral springs. CENIS, Mont, a mountain between the prov- ince of Turin in Italy and the department of Savoie in Prance, at the junction of the Graian with the Cottian Alps. It is an elevated pla- teau 6,773 ft. above the sea level, with a peak rising to the height of 11,457 ft. On the pla- teau is Lake La Ramasse, noted for its fine trout. There is little vegetation, on account of the force of the winds which blow constantly. Over this plateau or neck, formed by a gradual sinking northward from the summit of the chain, is what is styled the pass of Mont Cenis, at some distance from the mountain itself. As a practicable pass from Gaul to Italy it was unknown to the ancients. Two centuries be- fore Christ, Hannibal went past it for 40 m., and is supposed to have crossed the Alps at the Little St. Bernard. It first appears in history as an Alpine pass in A. D. 755, when Pepin led his army against Astolphus, king of the Lom- bards, in aid of Pope Stephen III. Pepin's son Charlemagne led an army over the same route. In 1174 it was crossed by Frederick Barbarossa. In 1557 the duke of Alva passed over with a Spanish army to quell the revolt in the Neth- erlands. In 1691, in the wars of Louis XIV., Marshal Catinat led the French army across, and made some improvement in the road ; but for centuries it was little more than a mere mule path. In 1803 Chevalier Fabroni, under the orders of Napoleon, began the construction of a carriage road, which was completed in 1810, at a cost of 7,500,000 francs. This high- way, 18 ft. wide, extending from Saint-Michel on the western side to Susa on the eastern, would give a distance in a straight line of 30 m., but the windings of the road make it 50 m. An excellent diligence service was established ; horses were changed as rapidly as on the best post roads ; and at the zigzags, beginning at Lanslebourg on the west side, teams of 16 mules were attached to drag the diligence up the steepest ascents, while many of the pas- sengers dismounted and materially shortened the distance for themselves by walking directly across the long curves. The road was open and safe at all seasons, even in winter, and for many years it was believed to be the only prac- ticable way of crossing the Alps at this impor- tant point. Meanwhile railways on either side had reached the foot of the mountains, and about 1861 Mr. Fell, an English engineer, con- Mont Cenis Railway. ceived the idea of overcoming by steam tran- sit the gradients of the pass, by applying a principle patented more than 30 years before by Charles Vignolles and John Ericsson, and first tried by them on the Cromford and High Peak railway in England. In 1865 Fell ob- tained from the French and Italian govern- ments a grant to lay down a railway on Napo- leon's Mont Cenis carriage road ; it was con- structed at a cost of 8,000 per mile, and opened in 1868. The main feature of his plan was the addition of a third central rail, raised a foot above the others, and, by means of brakes and levers, strongly gripped by horizontal dri- ving wheels, thus enabling trains to traverse curves of short radius, and safely to ascend and descend gradients of 1 in 15, and even 1