The assassination of Ioannis Kapodistrias is presented as an act of revenge that turned a political arrest into a cycle of retaliatory violence. Recalled by the unnamed narrator during a conversation in Nafplio, the event also survives as a local memory: a bullet associated with the attack is said to remain embedded in the Church of St Spyridon, Nafplio.

Background and Motive

While sitting in Nafplio’s town square, the narrator hears from a local couple that residents have grown wary of men who sit alone, following what they call the Adamakos affair. The conversation turns to the Mani and its reputation for vendettas when family honour is disrespected. The narrator connects that reputation to an earlier episode he had read about: Kapodistrias, the first head of the new Greek state, had arrested members of an important but rebellious clan from the Mani.

The Assassination

Two relatives of the arrested men waited for Kapodistrias as he was going to church. The first shot missed; they then stabbed him, and a second bullet struck him in the head. Kapodistrias was killed, and the assassins were executed shortly afterwards. The sequence is related plainly as retaliation followed by punishment, with neither ending the violence’s hold on local memory.

Aftermath and Local Memory

The couple points out that a bullet from the attack is embedded in the Church of St Spyridon, Nafplio, just around the corner from the square. The narrator says he had seen it earlier that day. The physical trace links the historical killing to the streets where the conversation takes place, making the past feel close rather than safely concluded. The husband’s warning not to disrespect anyone from the Mani, together with his observation that blood feuds have lasted into modern times, gives the assassination its role in the scene: it is both a historical example of revenge and a cautionary frame for the story the couple is about to tell.