LIVES OF BANDITTI, &c. GENERAL VIEW OF BANDITTI AND ROBBERS. THERE are few subjects that interest us more generally, than the adventures of robbers and banditti. In our infancy they awaken and rivet our attention as much as the best fairy tales, and when our happy credulity in all things is wofully abated, and our faith in the supernatural fled, we still retain our taste for the adventurous deeds and wild lives of brigands. Neither the fulness of years nor the maturity of experience and worldly wisdom can render us insensible to tales of terror such as fascinated our childhood, nor preserve us from a "creeping of the flesh" as we read or listen to the narrative containing the daring exploits of some robber-chief, his wonderful address, his narrow escapes, and his prolonged crimes, seated by our own peaceful hearth. It is another thing when we hear of these doings on the spots where they have just occurred, and may occur again: for in that case the idea that we may adorn a future tale, instead of telling it, is apt to make attention too painful, and the effect produced will be too intense, and will exceed that certain degree of dread and horror which gives us pleasure in romances, tragedies, and other efforts of the imagination. If we happen to be well protected at the time, and have a tolerable consciousness of security, then indeed we may doubly enjoy these tales on the spots-the solitary heath, the mountain-pass, or the forest-where the facts they relate occurred; but under general circumstances the exploits of a Pepe Mastrillo, or a Mazzaroni, will not be agreeable entertainment across the Pontine marshes, or through the defiles of the Neapolitan frontier. I remember one dark night, in which, with much difficulty, we found our way from the Neapolitan town of San Ger 9 |