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Savannah Morning News
Savannah, Chatham County, Georgia
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Biographical sketch of Kate Field, a remarkable lecturer born in New Orleans around 30 years ago. At 16, captured by Sicilian brigands and ransomed after six weeks; she learned Italian and bandit customs. Later visited Spain, had a romance with Marquis del Ratz who died tragically. Bandit chief Manrico Bolero fell in love with her, later became a monk.
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She Was Captured by Brigands and Released When Ransomed.
From the Chicago News.
Miss Kate Field, who is to lecture in this city next Thursday evening, is in many respects a most remarkable woman. None of her sex possesses to so marked a degree every feminine charm, coupled with an intellectual vigor that is certainly masculine. Miss Field's life has been a romantic one. She was born about 30 years ago, in New Orleans and was educated in the Convent de Ste. Genevieve near the city. When 16 years of age she was sent to Europe to "finish off," but while traveling in Sicily she was seized by brigands, who demanded 70,000 livres for her ransom. This sum was paid by the family of the young girl after she had been a captive for six weeks, during which time she acquired a thorough acquaintance with the Italian language, and obtained a complete knowledge of the customs of the banditti.
A narrative of her experience in the Sicilian fastnesses appeared in Il Banana Napoli (1865), and is now regarded as a model of Italian romance. In 1867 Miss Field visited Spain as the guest of Signora Serrano, and it was at this time that she was wooed by the young Marquis Miguel Maria Jesus del Ratz, whose melancholy and tragic death while attending a bull fight in Madrid has already been detailed in these columns. This was the one love affair of Miss Field's life, but the case of Manrico Bolero, the chief of the banditti who abducted the fair girl, deserves more than passing mention. It appears that while she was a captive this Bolero became deeply sensible of the personal and mental charms of young Kate; his suit was vain, however, the conscientious girl refusing to become the bandit's bride. After she was ransomed the image of her beauty and the recollection of her goodness and her wit so preyed upon the mind of the bandit that he forsook his godless occupation, distributed his ill-gotten gains among the poor, became an inmate of a monastery, and even now, under the name of Brother Felix, devotes his remaining days to Benedictine piety and the manufacture of a well-known cordial of the same name.
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Location
New Orleans, Sicily, Spain, Madrid
Event Date
About 30 Years Ago; 1865; 1867
Story Details
Kate Field, born in New Orleans, educated at Convent de Ste. Genevieve, captured by Sicilian brigands at 16 and ransomed for 70,000 livres after six weeks; learned Italian and bandit customs. Her narrative published in 1865. In 1867, wooed by Marquis del Ratz in Spain who died tragically. Bandit chief Bolero fell in love with her, she refused him; he later became monk Brother Felix.