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the mountain 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 eyri 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.

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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

tigue, and cold, and partly from a wound he received in his forehead in the scuffle, when he was first taken prisoner. The captured butler, and Facchino, whom I have seen, say that the robbers did not treat them ill, and gave them plenty of food; more, indeed, than they could eat; for, it may be supposed, that in such a situation, their appetite could not be very keen. Neither could they enjoy much repose, surrounded with cocked carabines. The captain of those banditti, who was a remarkably little man, used to say to them, with great politeness, "We shall really be sorry to murder you, gentlemen, but if the Prince does not send the money, we must do it-our honour is engaged."

They knew, indeed, too well, he would keep his word; for it is not long since a poor young woman was carried off between Velletri and Terracina, and the ransom they required not being paid, she was murdered, and her body left on the mountains.

Nor is this the only exploit of the sort in this neighbourhood. A few weeks ago, a Roman gentleman and his daughters were taking a walk after mass on a Sunday, close to the town of Palestrina, when a party of banditti rushed upon them, and carried them off to the mountains. The poor old man, who was asthmatic, and unable to keep pace with the rapidity of the flight, was brutally murdered, before the eyes of his unfortunate daughters, whose ransom enriched these monsters with the wealth of the man they had slain.

About two months ago, a bride, on the day of her nuptials, was carried off from a villa near Albano, while sitting at table, surrounded by her husband and relations, and after passing a night on the mountain, she was liberated, on the payment of a heavy ransom, without insult or injury.

LETTER XCVII.

BANDITTI.

Rome, February 4th, 1818.

You were misinformed about our robbery; our ears were not cut off, neither were we left without any clothes, and I must beg to assure you, whatever you may have heard to the contrary, that we were not murdered. Our assailants, who were four in number, or perhaps more, (but four only appeared,) were, indeed, by no means sparing in their threats to put an end to us, and held their cocked pistols over and over again at our heads; but this was done in order to frighten us into giving them all we had; for though I am convinced they would have had no more scruple in killing us, than a butcher a sheep, or a sportsman a partridge, if they could have got a single ducat by it; yet, as that was not the case, and as the mere abstract act of murdering a set of harmless people cannot afford any extraordinary gratification; they granted my reiterated prayer, (which the gentlemen disdained to second,) to take our money and spare our lives; and we have good reason to bless ourselves in es

VOL. III.

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