I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed, Ch. I), by Alessandro Manzoni

<p>Because of a fancy for a peasant girl, the tyrannical lord of an Italian village sent desperadoes to threaten the priest if he married the girl to her village lover. (Volume 21, Harvard Classics)</p> <p>Manzoni died May 22, 1873.</p> <p> </p>