This Particular Incident Was Flatly Denied By
Manhes In A Letter Dated 1835, Which Is Quoted In The "Notizia Storica
Del Conte C. A. Manhes" (Naples, 1846) - One Of A Considerable Number Of
Pro-Bourbon Books That Cropped Up About This Time.
One is apt to have
quite a wrong impression of Manhes, that inexorable but incorruptible
scourge of evildoers.
One pictures him a grey-haired veteran, scarred
and gloomy; and learns, on the contrary, that he was only thirty-two
years old at this time, gracious in manner and of surprising personal
beauty.]
For the first time since long Calabria was purged. Ever since the
Bruttians, irreclaimable plunderers, had established themselves at
Cosenza, disquieting their old Hellenic neighbours, the recesses of this
country had been a favourite retreat of political malcontents. Here
Spartacus drew recruits for his band of rebels; here "King Marcene"
defied the oppressive Spanish Viceroys, and I blame neither him nor his
imitators, since the career of bandit was one of the very few that still
commended itself to decent folks, under that regime.
During the interregnum of Bourbonism between Murat and Garibaldi the
mischief revived - again in a political form. Brigands drew pensions from
kings and popes, and the system gave rise to the most comical incidents;
the story of the pensioned malefactors living together at Monticello
reads like an extravaganza. It was the spirit of Offenbach, brooding
over Europe. One of the funniest episodes was a visit paid in 1865 by
the disconsolate Mrs. Moens to the ex-brigand Talarico, who was then
living in grand style on a government pension.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 322 of 488
Words from 86454 to 86720
of 131203
