Lord of Earth

At the head of it all is God, lord of heaven.

Then comes Prince Torlonia, lord of earth.

Then comes the armed guard of Prince Torlonia.

Then comes the hounds of the armed guard of Prince Torlonia.

Then nobody else. And still nobody else.

And still again nobody else.

Then come the farmers . . .

--Ignacio Silone, Fontamara

The first noteworthy member of the Torlonia family (which came from France to Italy in the 18th Century) was Giovanni, a rag & bone merchant who became one of Europe's greatest financiers, lent money to kings and even to Napoleon's high-living kin. He bought a couple of ancient dukedoms, but Roman aristocracy--whose thin blue lineage is longer than almost anybody else's--sneered at the upstart. At one of Giovanni's lavish fetes, the French novelist Stendhal overheard a great Roman lady say: "Torlonia should not come to his own balls . . . One sees only too clearly that he is incapable of enjoying the beautiful things he has gathered around him ..."

Hounds to Jeeps. Giovanni passed most of his beautiful things on to his younger son Alessandro, who justified his father's confidence. His most notable undertaking was the conversion into farmland of Lake Fucino--a problem which had been, on the agenda since the reign of the Emperor Claudius I (B.C. 10-A.D. 54). "Either I will dry up Fucino," said Alessandro, "or it will dry me up." After eleven years, Alessandro won; the family still rents out most of Fucino's 35,000 acres to tenants at $40 an acre a year.

Present master of this domain is the first Alessandro's great-grandson, 23-year-old Don Alessandro Carlo Paolo Giulio Augusto Francesco Romano Torlonia, Prince Torlonia, Prince of Fucino, Prince of Canino and Musignamo, Duke of Ceri, Marquess of Romavecchia. To prevent Torlonia tenants from acquiring any permanent rights to their land, the family has forbidden them to plant trees or build huts. The Torlonias' armed guard no longer has to rely on the hounds; it rides in jeeps, patrolling day & night, along a 33-mile road surrounding Fucino.

"You Die!" When Alessandro took over his estates last year, he surveyed his assets and found that 222 sheep were missing from among the more than 2,000 at one of his smaller farms, a ranch in central Italy. The manager, Pierino Amori, explained that the animals had disappeared during the German occupation and that he had not wanted to worry his master with such a trifle; but the prince filed charges of theft against Pierino. This month he was to appear in court to answer the charges.

Last Sunday the young prince, accompanied by his two sisters, left the family pew at Rome's quiet little Church of St. Girolamo. Pierino appeared, a pistol in his outstretched hand. "You die!" he shouted, and fired five times. The prince drew his own pistol, but before he could aim he slumped backward.

Pierino was arrested and the prince taken to a hospital, where he is recovering. But the great lord faced other difficulties. The shooting brought forth anti-Torlonia editorials in the Marxist press. This week a group of Christian Democratic deputies proposed that the Fucino acres be expropriated by the government and turned over to the peasants who work them.

Meanwhile, the prince still came first, and after him the guard, and after the guard the hounds, and after the hounds the jeeps which circle Fucino day & night.

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