Her Husband Had Been
Captured By The Band Of Manzi (Another Brigand), And Expected To Be
Murdered Every Day, And
The lady succeeded in procuring from the
chivalrous monster - "an extremely handsome man, very tall, with the
smallest and most
Delicate hands" - an exquisite letter to his colleague,
recommending him to be merciful to the Englishman and to emulate his own
conduct in that respect. The letter had no effect, apparently; but Moens
escaped at last, and wrote his memoirs, while Manzi was caught and
executed in 1868 after a trial occupying nearly a month, during which
the jury had to answer 311 questions.
His villainies were manifold. But they were put in the shade by those of
others of his calling - of Caruso, for example, who was known to have
massacred in one month (September, 1863) two hundred persons with his
own hands. Then, as formerly, the Church favoured the malefactors, and I
am personally acquainted with priests who fought on the side of the
brigands. Francis II endeavoured to retrieve his kingdom by the help of
an army of scoundrels like those of Ruffo, but the troops shot them
down. Brigandage, as a governmental institution, came to an end.
Unquestionably the noblest figure in this reactionary movement was that
of Jose Borjes, a brave man engaged in an unworthy cause. You can read
his tragic journal in the pages of M. Monnier or Maffei. It has been
calculated that during these last years of Bourbonism the brigands
committed seven thousand homicides a year in the kingdom of Naples.
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