the Bourbonist leaders. Never was there a more hopeless project; but still it was one to which calumny need not have added itself to falsify and defame!
Brigandage, as I have said, dates long back in Italian history. It may be traced from the days of the Saracens to our own. In the time of Murat it was at its height, and though the energetic measures of the French went far to repress, they never succeeded in extinguishing it.
With every revolutionary change, the prisons were broken open, and the worst malefactors, once more at large, recommenced their work of rapine and violence. The weaker party in these political struggles never hesitated to avail themselves of such aid, and in the memorable expedition of Cardinal Buffo in 1799, Fra Diavolo, Prono, and Scarpa were all engaged.
Brigandage held a high head in those days. Taccone, who was the terror of the whole Basilicata, made a triumphal entry one morning into Potenza, the chief town of the district. The first authorities of the place met and conducted him in state to the cathedral, where a Te Deum was sung in honour of his arms! After which—strange sequel!—he selected a young lady from one of the chief families of the town and compelled her by force to accompany him!
On leaving Potenza, he repaired to Labriola and laid regular siege to the proprietor in his castle, and at last compelled him to surrender,—with, however, the pledge that no injury should be done the family or its dependants. The promise availed little: a scene of the most infamous violence followed, and the castle itself was burned to the ground!
Parafante was another whose deeds would fill volumes. Having captured once, in a wood near St. Euphemia, a Frenchman named Astruc, an intendant of the royal domains, he imposed on him for ransom the conditions that all the brigands then detained in prison should be liberated, and food and raiment given them. Terms which were agreed to and rigidly kept. The State, be it remarked, had at that time under its orders an army of 100,000 men, nearly 5000 of whom were in the very province where this event occurred! A fact that has not the less significance at the very hour I am writing, when the report of General La Marmora declares that the royal forces in Southern Italy are 80,000 strong, and the brigands are at most 400!! And yet with this disparity of force, brigandage continues to defy all the powers of the government, and actually threatens the very stability of the kingdom.
The world has heard a good deal of Chiavone, and very striking photographs of a stern but handsome fellow in a picturesque dress are to be seen of him in almost every city of Italy. His real character and career are, however, far less romantic than is generally believed. Originally a “Garde chasse” at Sora, he was known by and had a certain influence over the poachers who largely abounded in that district. His band consists for the most part of charcoal-burners, a rude and savage set of people, who even in peaceful times are reputed to lead lives of lawlessness and violence. Chiavone has no reputation for bravery; he is, on the contrary, reputed to be backward in every enterprise of peril. He usually infests that portion of the kingdom which adjoins the Roman frontier, over which, when pressed, he at once escapes, and, it is rumoured, hastens on to Rome to narrate his daring and successful exploits! Without devotion to be a partisan, or courage to be a brigand, he is a mere robber, living by and caring for nothing but pillage.
It is only fair to say that he has had no share in the cruelties attributed to his followers. Many acts of mercy and even benevolence are told of him, and he would seem to take a pride in his character for kindness. Some say that in all there is an assumption of those traits which are known to be the attributes of Garibaldi. It is totally erroneous to suppose that this man possesses any real influence, or that he has the qualities by which influence is won or exercised. His extraordinary reputation is entirely owing to the art by which he has continued to make himself a foreground figure, in constant communication with Rome, from which he issues pompous proclamations and wordy “orders of the day:” far safer exploits than meeting the Bersaglieri of Piedmont in the passes of the mountains, or confronting the Lancers of Aosta on the plains!
One of the boldest exploits of brigandage was accomplished by Cipriano della Gala, a very different sort of leader from Chiavone. This man, himself an escaped galley-slave, had a brother imprisoned at Caserta and under sentence of death. Resolving to liberate him, he got together a number of his followers whom he dressed like soldiers of the National Guard, and he himself, wearing the uniform of an officer, appeared at the prison at Caserta with a man in his custody whom he desired to consign to the gaol. The prison doors were at once opened, and the band rushing in made themselves masters of the place. The gaolers were killed and the prisoner liberated. A few soldiers of the National Guard endeavoured to arrest the brigands, but they were speedily beaten off, and Cipriano and his followers escaped safely to their mountains.
This feat, be it remembered, took place in a town of considerable size, and not farther from Naples than Richmond is from London. Nor is it the least striking feature of this brigandage that its depredations are carried to within a few miles of the capital, and that Sorrento and Castellamare have been more than once in the hands of these marauders.
The system of exacting heavy ransoms for the persons carried off by the brigands has been brought to a marvellous degree of perfection in Southern Italy, not only as regards all the details of secrecy and payment, but as to the accuracy with which the captured individual is appraised, and a suitable price appended to him. They would actually seem to know to the very last ducate that could be extracted from terror-stricken and suffering relatives; and there are to be seen at this very hour families who were once in circumstances of comfort, reduced to the most miserable want by the cruel exactions of these wretches. Nor are the stories fabulous of cruel mutilations and tortures inflicted on prisoners to