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in prison. 4th. Our women are to be allowed to visit us daily in prison. 5th. At the termination of the six months, we are each to have an employment bringing at least 25 crowns a month: We give you eight days to return an answer, and if at the termination of that time we do not receive an answer in this place, our agreement is to be void, and every one is to be at liberty to do what he pleases. If our propositions should be accepted, we will immediately give ourselves up." The Bishop promised to make his report, and departed, trembling and wondering at the courage and firmness of mind of the Brigands, to make his report to the pontifical government. It being supposed that this would be the best method of extirpating the Brigands, though it turned out quite the contrary, for seeing themselves pardoned by the sovereign in this manner, they all said it was better to be a Brigand for one or two years, put by a fortune, and then get a government pardon, and instead of being poor, be a rich man; but the government, supposing it would put a stop to robbery, made haste to send within the eight days its acceptance of the proposed conditions. The Bishop sent the government pardon to the spot, and within two days the Brigands, having in the mean time placed their riches in safety, gave themselves up, and went with their women to prison. Several times I had an opportunity to meet the women of these Brigands in the street, and it would be difficult to describe the gold chains and other precious ornaments which they wore in their dress, all being clothed in the fashion of their country. They appeared to wear about them the rewards of crime, for it was well known these ornaments were the price of innocent blood. Every day some priests went to confess the Brigands, but they excused themselves because they had not eaten, or on some other pretext, or even because they were not disposed to confess; but at length, seeing that the priests would not be denied, that they came every day, they resolved to confess. After fifteen days confession (who can believe it?) they were allowed to communicate within the chapel, and the ceremony was performed with sumptuousness and solemnity. At the end of the six months, Barbone was appointed Inspector of the Police, in Rome, in the Borgo San Pietro, with a salary of thirty crows a month, and the others, that is to say Masocco and De Angelis, were made chiefs of a species of armed cavalry intended for the campagna, each of them having twenty-five crowns a month. The government thought it had fulfilled exactly what it had promised, and expected that all the other brigands would come in; but quite the contrary, for De Cessaris was at that time committing greater atrocities than ever in the vicinity of Amigri and Frosinone. Among other barbarities which he committed, the following is enough to make one shudder with horror; Count Jacucco, of Anagri, was going one day with his two daughters, on foot, through his grounds, one mile distant from the town of Anagri, when he was surprised by De Cessaris and ten of his band. The count and his two daughters were seized, they were forbidden to speak, and the robber demanded 10,000 crowns of them as their ransom. The Count replied, that he consented to this demand ;' but that it was necessary to write home, as he did not carry such a sum about him. "Very well," said De Cessaris," come with me to the mountains, and write from thence, and we will allow you to go when we get the money." The poor count was very corpulent, and could not walk, as the assassins said, and they were afraid of a surprise, being so close to the town. In fact, the gen-d'armerie of Anagri had received intimation of the approach of the Brigands, and were making preparations to pursue them, without having much hope of rescuing the captured family. The Brigands hearing of the pursuit, and the count not being

able to walk, they killed him on the spot before the eyes of his daughters; he fell under seven or eight strokes of the stiletto. The assassins then took the girls on their shoulders, who, seeing their father thus sacrificed, and themselves in the hands of the Brigands, became so dreadfully alarmed, that one of them lost her reason. The gendarmes following the traces of the Brigands, found the count still alive, but who died a few moments afterwards. The pursuit of the gendarmes continued, but was quite fruitless, as they never overtook the assassins. At the end of two days, letters came from the two girls to their uncle, requiring that 10,000 crowns should be immediately sent, when from thirty to forty persons were to be liberated, who were detained like themselves. The uncle sent the desired sum, and at the end of five days, during which time they were detained for the amusement of the robbers, the two girls were released. They could give no account of where they had been, as they were conducted blindfold to the bottom of the mountains, where they found provisions, which the robbers took on their mules, and then conducted them, almost dead, to their home. As soon as they reached home, they went to bed, and were confined six months from illness. The elder embraced a religious life, notwithstanding she had before been promised in marriage to a young gentleman of the same city. Having been asked where the Brigands held out in the mountains, and how they had been treated, they would not answer till they were questioned by the police, and then they gave the following information: As soon as their father was slain, they began to cry, when the robbers bound handkerchiefs over their mouths, and threatened them with the same fate as their father if they made the least noise. The Brigands then hoisted them on their shoulders, and began to flee; the two young women then became insensible, and were carried to the mountains in that state. When they recovered from their stupor, they found themselves on the earth, with three or four women, who were using vinegar to restore them to their senses, and within the house there was a great number of men laughing aloud. The women (said the young lady) endeavoured to encourage us, telling us not to lament our father, that we should be safe, and that all the men within were good men, who did nobody any injury. We continued to weep, thinking of our father, and not knowing what might yet be coming for ourselves, De Cessaris then came and told us it was of no use weeping for our father, and we must write home and demand 10,000 crowns, for which we should be liberated. In the mean time (said he) be of good cheer, I do not like to see you weep, and it is our custom to be always merry. You shall now have something to eat with us, continued De Cessaris, and afterwards you shall go to sleep, one with me, and the other with my nephew. We then began to weep again, and said, is it not enough to make us weep that our father is murdered, that you demand 10,000 crowns from us, and now you attack our honour? we will give you 60,000 crowns, but leave us our honour. De Cessaris replied, I like money very well, but I also like good company, and he laughed at and mocked us. Ile began to joke, and we again burst into tears, while the women prepared a table, and then all the Brigands sat themselves down; De Cessaris desired that we should seat ourselves at his side, and eat, and he sent for two pistols and swore that if we did not leave off crying, and begin to eat, we should be murdered, like our father. Seeing our selves in this situation, we dried our tears, as the best mode of appeasing him, and constraining ourselves to eat some trifle; they in the mean time eating and drinking heartily, and all talking of us. Some of the women were worse than the men, laughing at our distress, and making rude jokes on our unhappy

situation. De Cessaris told us, laughing at us, that if we found ourselves contented, after a few days, we might marry two of the young men, and be very happy, that we should eat and drink of the best. If the gendarmes, he continued, should find out this place, we will seek a more secure one. The life of a brigand, he added, is invulnerable, and they always live in luxury. We did not reply a word, and remained with our eyes cast down. After they had all got nearly drunk, and it had become night, De Cessaris called one of the women, and told her that we might sleep in the cottage. She laughed, and led us to a sort of hut built of straw, where we found two mattresses on the earth, and the woman pointed out to us that one was for each, according to the orders of the captain. We began to weep at the dreadful situation in which we were placed. After a little time, De Cessaris and his nephew came into the hut, and the former said, in a joyous manner, " Do not fear, girls, you are with good men." Then speaking to his nephew, he asked him if he had placed all the guards for the evening, and the nephew answered, yes. Then, again turning to us, he said "It is of no use crying; you must bear your fate with patience, or it will be worse for you." On the following morning we wrote the letter for the money, and begged of him to send it, and then he said he was obliged to go into the kingdom of Naples on various accounts; that at the end of three days he should return, and in the mean time we had nothing to do but eat and drink, and amuse ourselves with his men, whom he was to leave behind him. Then throwing ourselves on our knees before him, we begged he would kill us, but he laughed at us, saying, he was accustomed to that. The women began again to mock us, and said, we are women, and we are contented to stay with these men, and why should you make so much fuss, when you see it has no effect on them? At the end of four days the money arrived. De Cessaris returned with much booty, and asked if we had been amused in his absence. On the fifth day he said, that he saw we were not pleased with their company, and as we did not know the way, he sent two men with us, who conducted us to within half a mile of the town, where we met some peasants who brought us home. For me the world is at an end. I will enter a convent; and shortly afterwards she became a nun at Saint Chiari. Since then De Cessaris has continued his crimes.

DREADFUL INUNDATION.

The following melancholy disaster befel the city of Montauban, in France, by an inundation of the river Tarna, which began on the 14th of November, 1766, and laid 1200 houses in ruins.

The fall of the houses began in the suburb of Sapiac. The noise occasioned by their tumbling was heard in the neighbouring suburb, with the cries of several persons who called out for help; but as the water entirely surrounded the suburb of Sapiac, it was very difficult going to the assistance of the unhappy inhabitants. The river, which was prodigiously swollen and rapid, was laden with a number of trees of an enormous size, that had been torn up by the roots, and carried down along with it; a circumstance which, joined with the darkness of the night, rendered the passage of boats very dangerous. These obstacles, however, did not intimidate a mariner, who, in spite of the entreaties and tears of his wife and children, ventured to cross the river in order to save such as were on the point of perishing. His courage

roused several of his fellow boatmen to imitate him; and by means of their help no one perished.

The floods continued to increase, and redoubled their alarms. The inhabitants of the city, separated from the suburb by a bridge ran to the ville Bourbonne. At seven o'clock of the morning of Tuesday, Nov. 18, the floods began to abate, and their decrease continued till noon. Hope immediately began to spring up in every bosom, but was soon stifled by the fall of the greatest part of the suburb of Gasseras, adjoining to that of the ville Bourbonne; and it was perceived that all the houses, even those that were yet at a distance from the waters, were tottering, and rested only on a loose earth which the waters had already undermined.

At noon the swell began again, and was continually augmenting. The consternation was then universal. Order's were then given to move off all the effects. Persons of all ranks were desired to assist in the removal, and all the carts and carriages were engaged to make the removal the more speedy. The tribunals of justice opened their halls, the monks their convents and cloisters; and the churches were also offered as repositories for the effects of the people. The inhabitants of ville Bourbonne abandoned successively their houses; and the inhabitants of the city, with an earnestness which did honour to humanity, received their unhappy neighbours, and with marks of true tenderness, endeavoured to assuage a grief which had no bounds.

The inundation increased during that whole day, and continued still augmenting till seven in the morning, November 19, when the waters were thirtytwo feet above the common water level. Such an extraordinary inundation occasioned sundry neighbouring villages to be entirely overflowed, and produced the greatest ravages. In the plains, the buildings were overwhelmed, the grain washed away, the cattle drowned, and the greatest part of the inhabitants found their only safety in sudden flight, or in climbing high trees, where the horrors of famine were joined to the dreadful spectacle of beholding their dwellings destroyed, and their effects carried away by the flood.

ACCOUNT OF THE UNFORTUNATE CAPTAIN GLAS.

Of all men that ever raised the compassion of his contemporaries, perhaps the gentleman of whose life we are going to give a few circumstances was the most unfortunate. The disappointments of others have been remarked and celebrated; but this gentleman's sufferings seem to have been disregarded, though well worthy, for their singularity, of a place even in history. But it has ever been the way among us to make the greatest noise about the most insignificant persons, while those who really merited well from their country, languish out their life in obscurity, and die unknown.

Captain Glas was a native of Scotland, and bred originally a surgeon. In that capacity he made some voyages to the coasts of Guinea; and his merit being known, he was at length promoted to be master of a Guinea ship, in which station he continued till the late war began. Having gained a good sum of money in trade, he was resolved to venture a part of it on board a privateer, and he went himself captain, He was not three days at sea in this new command before the ship's crew mutinied, and sent him what is called in the sea phrase, a round robin, in which the crew write their names in a circle, lest one should be before the other, and thus more exposed than the rest. In

this situation he came on board and offered to fight with any man whom he had offended; but the men knowing him to be very resolute, and greatly superior in strength to any in the ship, declined his challenge, and at length, by fair speeches from him were appeased; but still more so by the capture of a French merchantman of great value, which followed immediately after. This gleam of good fortune, however, was soon dispelled by the appearance of an enemy's frigate above twice his strength, with which however he resolved to engage. The contest was a warm one for more than two hours; but at length another French ship appearing, Captain Glas was obliged to strike, not without the loss of more than half his crew, and he himself shot through the shoulder.

He remained some time in a French prison in the West Indies, and was treated with much severity; but being at last exchanged, he resolved to em.bark the remainder of his fortune upon another adventure in the privateering way. The same success attended him now that did upon the former occasion; he was again taken prisoner, and his whole fortune at once destroyed. Upon being released a second time, he was employed by merchants in their service to and from the West Indies, and was taken prisoner during the war no less than seven times. In this fluctuation of his fortunes, however, he had, upon the conclusion of the peace, amassed about two thousand pounds prize-money, and being reckoned one of the best seamen in the British dominions, he resolved in his own ship to go upon a voyage of discovery. It was upon this occasion that he found out a new harbour on the coast of Africa, between the river Senegal and Cape de Verd, to which he reasonably supposed a very great trade might be driven Elated with this success, he returned to England, and laid his discovery before the ministry. He went with the utmost patience through all the delays of office, and at length obtained an exclusive trade to his own harbour for twenty years. Having thus prepared for his departure, with the assistance of one or two other merchants, he left England with seven or eight seamen, and after a successful voyage arrived at the new-found harbour. His first care was to send one of his men on shore with propositions of trade, but the treacherous natives murdered him the moment he landed. Captain Glas, however, was not yet discouraged; he found means to inform the king of the country of the wrong done him, and the mutual advantages that might accrue from trading thither. The king seemed to be pleased with his proposal, but it was only to get him the more securely in his power; but Glas being on his guard, he failed in effecting his base design. The king's next attempt was to poison the crew by provisions which were sent as presents to the captain; this also failed of effect; but Glas, for want of necessaries, was obliged to go to the Canaries in an open boat, in order to buy what was wanting from the Spaniards. In the mean time, the savages perceiving the captain go off, thought this a very convenient time to fall upon ship and plunder it; but they were bravely repulsed by the little crew that remained; and the ship being obliged to quit the harbour, and not finding her captain return, sailed away for England, where it arrived in safety.

In the mean time, the unfortunate captain had landed upon one of the Canary Islands, and presented his petition to the Spanish governor: but his bad fortune still followed him; the Spaniard, instead of treating him with the desired hospitality, meanly threw him into prison as a spy, and there kept him in a dark damp dungeon for some months, without either pen, ink, or paper. Being thus destitute of every means of making his case known to his country

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