bania,--not, however, bringing her house along with her. But, in other respects, her exploits, if I had time to narrate them, do by no means fall short of her's of Loretto. Many are the pilgrims, among whom may be reckoned crowned heads even of this generation, who have come from distant countries to visit the shrine of this flying Virgin of Genezzano. The nuts and roses, for which Præneste was famous in Roman days, I am assured still abound there.

LETTER XCVI.

FRASCATI-BANDITTI.

Frascati, Nov. 11, 1818.

CONSTERNATION fills this little peaceful town. Yesterday evening, Lucien Buonaparte's villa was entered by a gang of banditti ;-but I must tell you the story in order as it happened.

About four in the afternoon, Monsignore, (as the old priest of the family is through courtesy called,) set out to take his accustomed walk; and, unluckily for himself, directed his steps up the hill to the ruins of ancient Tusculum; when, suddenly from the bushes which shade the cavity of the amphitheatre, two armed robbers sprung out, dragged him among the thickets, where four others were lying in ambush; and having stripped him of his watch, money, and clothes, they tied his hands behind his back, and gave him notice, that the first moment he attempted to speak, or make the smallest noise, would be the last of his life. They kept him prisoner there till after sunset, when

they crept through the wood to the house, and made a halt among the thick laurels and shrubs close to it. In the meantime the dinner-bell rang, the family sat down to table, but as Monsignore was not to be found, a servant was sent into the pleasureground in search of him, who left the house-door unfastened. The banditti softly made their approaches. Five of them entered unseen and unheard, and the sixth staid to guard the door. Monsignore seized this moment to betake himself to his heels, and gained a remote out-house, where he buried himself overhead among straw, and was found many hours after more dead than alive.

In the meantime the five robbers, with their firearms presented, cautiously advanced into the house, but they were soon descried by the servants, whose shrieks they stilled in a moment by the menace of instant death, if they moved a step, or uttered a sound. One maid-servant, however, escaped, and gave the alarm to the party in the dining-room, who all fled in different directions to conceal themselves, excepting the unfortunate secretary, who had previously left the room to inquire into the cause of the tumult, and was seized, on his way down stairs, by the robbers, who mistook him for the Prince; and, in spite of his protestations, was carried off, together with the head-butler, and a poor Facchino,* whom they encountered on the grounds, to the mountain

Porter, or out-door labourer.

above Velletri, a distance of seven miles, without stopping.

This morning the captured Facchino, like another Regulus, has been sent as ambassador, or charge d'affaires, from the banditti to the Prince, to propose terms, which are, to deliver up their prisoners on the payment of a ransom of 4000 crowns; or, on the non-payment of it, within four-and-twenty hours, to shoot them. Lucien Buonaparte sent back one half of their demand in money, and an order on his banker for the rest. The robbers sent back the order, torn through the middle, with a further demand of 4000 crowns in hard money, besides the 2000 they had already received, under pain of the immediate death of their prisoners. The Prince received this insolent mandate in his palace at Rome, where he took refuge this morning, and has been obliged to obey it.

I wonder the government do not feel ashamed that such outrages should be perpetrated within ten miles of Rome, and that they should be obliged to admit delegates from banditti into the very seat of government-the capital itself. A detachment of troops, and about two hundred armed peasants, levied by Lucien Buonaparte, are ready for the pursuit of the villains, the moment their captives are released-but, till then, they dare not move; for the eyrie on which they have perched themselves, commands a view of the whole country in every direction, and they have sworn to put the prisoners to death the moment they see the approach of an armed man.

The Pope's soldiers, indeed, it would seem, are not much to be depended upon themselves, for it is not long since the guard from the Trinità de' Monti, and the Porta del Popolo, at Rome, walked off one fine moonlight night, with their arms and accoutrements, to the hills, and joined a party of banditti.

It was the intention of the banditti, who entered Lucien Buonaparte's villa, to have seized both him and his daughter, who had been betrothed that very day to Prince Ercolani, a young Bolognese nobleman; and had they succeeded, their demands would have had no bounds.

Frascati, Nov. 19.

After a captivity of two days and a half, the prisoners returned, and the troops and armed peasantry instantly began the pursuit. The mountain on which they were stationed, it is said, was previously completely surrounded with guards, and every part of it has been searched,-an immense reward has been offered for the apprehension even of one of them-but all in vain. No traces of them have been discovered; and Lucien Buonaparte, in addition to the ransom, has had to pay an immense sum to the peasantry he hired, without the satisfaction of bringing the offenders to justice.

The unfortunate secretary has been confined to bed ever since, partly from the effects of fright, fa