Page:The Strand Magazine (Volume 3).djvu/271

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
272
THE STRAND MAGAZINE.

THE KING OF ITALY.

Born 1844.

Age 18.
From a Photo. by Duroni, Milan.
Age 34.
From a Photo. by Mauri, Naples.
Age 24.
From a Photo. by Le Lieure, Turin.
Age 47.
From a Photo. by Alessandri, Rome.


K ING HUMBERT IV. at eighteen had already attended his father through the War of Independence, and obtained an early insight into political and military life. At twenty-two he was present at the disastrous battle of Custozza, where he is said to have performed prodigies of valour. At twenty-four, at which age our second portrait represents him, he married, at Turin, the charming lady whose portraits we give on the opposite page. At thirty-four, the age of our third portrait, he succeeded to the throne, on the death of his father, January 9, 1878. In the same year, as he was entering Naples, a man named Giovanni Passanante rushed up to the royal carriage, and stabbed his Majesty with a poniard; the wound, however, fortunately proving slight.