SALVO, Carlo, Marquis de.

Travels in the Year 1806 from Italy to England...Containing the Particulars of the Liberation of Mrs. Spencer Smith.

      Portrait frontispiece of de Salvo, lx and 296 pp. 12mo, full calf, expertly rebacked many years ago. London: Printed for Richard Phillips, 1807. One of several London editions, no priority established.The Dedication is signed by W. Fraser who stated that he translated the narrative from a manuscript of the Marquis de Salvo. Mrs. Constance Spencer Smith was one of the daughters of Baron Herbert (for many years Austrian Internuncio at Constantinople) who was the wife of Spencer Smith, English Minister at Stuttgard, and sister-in-law of Admiral Sir Sidney Smith. Mrs. Smith, while staying in Venice with her sister, the Countess Attems, on account of her health was arrested in 1806 by the order of Napoleon, who planned, it was said, on sending her as a state prisoner to Valenciennes. The Marquis de Salvo, a young Sicilian was a friend of the Countess Attems, and a profound admirer of her sister. He determined to rescue her from the French police. This is the account of his successful venture. Set against the turbulent and ever-changing times of the Napoleonic Wars.Byron, a few years after this narrative was written had a brief affair with Mrs. Smith. TRAVEL NAPOLEONIC WARS