The Horseman on the Roof 1995

In July 1832, a band of Italian patriots taking shelter in Aix, France, faces a bitter betrayal when one of their own exposes them to Austrian agents. The tragedy claims Giacomo, who is dragged away and executed, while his wife races to warn a friend who can help: Angelo Pardi, a young Italian nobleman in France secretly raising funds for the revolution against the Austrian Empire. As the agents close in on his apartment, Angelo slips into the countryside, driven by a fierce resolve to fight for his homeland.

Across the countryside, in Meyrargues, Angelo searches for his compatriot and childhood ally, Maggionari, and writes a heartfelt note to his mother confessing how often he flees with little chance to demonstrate his mettle. The letter reveals a man who has only imagined combat, for his mother bought his commission as a colonel in the Piedmont Hussars, a rank he has yet to prove on the field. When the Austrian agents descend, Angelo resists them with grit, delivering blows and escaping back into the open country.

The following day, Angelo traverses a village scarred by a raging cholera epidemic. The sight of abandoned corpses and the eerie quiet of burned funeral pyres fills him with a grim sense of mortality. He receives practical care from a country physician who instructs him in how to treat cholera victims by rubbing alcohol into the skin. Moving north, he passes through more plague-ridden towns and encounters a compassionate young woman who travels with two children and offers him a copy of Rinaldo and Armida as a parting gift before he continues toward Manosque.

In Manosque, Angelo is seized by a paranoid mob who accuse him of poisoning a fountain. He is taken to the authorities, who abandon their posts in fear, and he searches for a fellow patriot only to collide with Austrian agents once more. He fights his way through the hysterical crowd, leaping across rooftops and evading capture, until he finally witnesses the agents pursued and beaten, and later sees piles of corpses burned in the night.

Seeking shelter from the rain, Angelo is discovered by Countess Pauline de Théus, Pauline de Théus who offers him food and safety. He explains himself as a gentleman, and when the morning comes, she has vanished. He joins the town’s forced evacuation, and soon discovers a fellow compatriot, Giuseppe, who is in possession of money raised for the resistance but blocked by quarantine and roadblocks. Angelo agrees to deliver the funds to Milan by backroads, and in a twist of fate, confronts Maggionari again, who tries to kill him before succumbing to cholera.

The couple’s paths cross again as Pauline reappears, and she accompanies Angelo on a daring river escape. Their journey leads them north toward a castle near Gap, rather than east toward the Italian frontier. Angelo insists this mission is his duty, and the pair bond as they move through country lanes and plague-ridden towns, all the while avoiding capture and maintaining their resolve. When asked about his family, Angelo reveals that he was never certain of his father; “He came to Italy with Napoleon, then left,” he says, and much of what he learned came from his mother.

As night falls, they seek shelter in a modest, ruined mansion and warm themselves by the fireplace. Pauline lays bare her own history, recounting the moment she met her husband—forty years her senior—a Count—after nursing him back from a near-fatal wound. He recovered, left without revealing his identity, and later returned to ask for her hand, a tale that heightens the couple’s evolving trust.

Despite the growing tenderness between them, Angelo remains steadfast as a gentleman. Pauline decides to stay with him through the night, and as she climbs a staircase, she collapses from cholera symptoms. Angelo rushes to her aid, stripping away the damp clothing and applying alcohol to her skin to keep her alive through the night. By morning, Pauline’s frail but steadfast touch reassures him, and they resume their march toward her castle at Théus.

Their path runs through a heavily guarded village where they learn that Pauline’s husband has returned to Manosque to search for her. Pauline leaves to reunite with him, and Angelo follows, only to witness her capture by militia and confinement in a quarantined convent. Knowing she would perish there, Angelo surrenders to the militia to rescue her, and together they orchestrate a dramatic escape by setting the convent ablaze. Impressed by his courage and intellect, Pauline declares her trust in him, saying, “I’ll obey you like a soldier,” and their bond intensifies as they press on toward the castle.

A night of shelter in a rain-soaked ruin deepens their connection, with Angelo protecting Pauline as they share wine and warmth by the fire. Pauline reveals how she first met her husband and why she chose to trust him, while Angelo remains a steadfast, gallant presence. The couple eventually reach the castle at Théus, where they are met by Count Laurent de Théus, Pauline’s husband, and Angelo departs to return to Italy to continue the revolution.

One year passes, and Pauline returns to Aix, where the cholera’s toll lingers. She searches in vain for the old house near the Bishop’s Palace, then another year goes by before she receives a letter from Angelo at a distant castle. She walks alone to read it, while the Count watches from a window, knowing that Angelo’s memory will endure. The final image lingers on Pauline looking east toward the snow-dusted Alps—toward the Italian frontier and the memory of Colonel Angelo Pardi, the young officer who once saved her life.