Brigandage in South Italy Volume 1 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1864 edition. Excerpt: ...You know the brigands who murdered Gerard. Capture or kill them, and Manhes will pardon you." Inspired with this hope, the whole population gave chase, on a given day, and did not rest until every one of the assassins had been killed or captured. The General, informed of this proceeding, revoked his sentence, and restored the inhabitants of Serra to the bosom of the human family. The entire population went in procession to Maida to reconduct their spiritual shepherds, and the re-establishment of religion in the village was celebrated with imposing ceremonies. Serra was thoroughly cured of the brigandage disease. The change in the people was marvellous. Before, the taxes had not been paid, nor the conscription executed; a strong guard had been found necessary to enforce some semblance of order. Now taxes were paid, conscripts flocked to the station, and even a small fort situated there was entrusted to the charge of the local militia, who executed the orders of the General with unexampled fidelity. These rude mountaineers testified their respent for the inexorable general by changing their ordinary objurgation, " By 8t. Devil," into, " By St. Manhes." Bizzaro, one of the most barbarous brigand chiefs, continued to escape the vigilance of Manhes until late in the year. He kept, after the fashion of slave-catchers, to pursue his victims, a brace of dogs, whose appetite for human blood he stimulated by feasting them upon the bodies of those whom he assassinated. His early career illustrates the history of brigands in general. At nineteen years of age he was in the service of a farmer, whose daughter he seduced. The brothers of the girl, discover-ing the seduction, fell upon him with their knives, covered him with gashes, and left him for dead. His...