"Scarce one of them but
will cross himself and say his prayers when he hears in his mountain
fastness the matin or the ave maria bells sounding from the valleys.
They will often confess themselves to the village priests, to obtain
absolution; and occasionally visit the village churches to pray at some
favorite shrine. I recollect an instance in point: I was one evening in
the village of Frescati, which lies below the mountains of Abruzzi. The
people, as usual in fine evenings in our Italian towns and villages,
were standing about in groups in the public square, conversing and
amusing themselves. I observed a tall, muscular fellow, wrapped in a
great mantle, passing across the square, but skulking along in the
dark, as if avoiding notice. The people, too, seemed to draw back as he
passed. It was whispered to me that he was a notorious bandit."
"But why was he not immediately seized?" said the Englishman.
"Because it was nobody's business; because nobody wished to incur the
vengeance of his comrades; because there were not sufficient gens
d'armes near to insure security against the numbers of desperadoes he
might have at hand; because the gens d'armes might not have received
particular instructions with respect to him, and might not feel
disposed to engage in the hazardous conflict without compulsion. In
short, I might give you a thousand reasons, rising out of the state of
our government and manners, not one of which after all might appear
satisfactory."
The Englishman shrugged his shoulders with an air of contempt.
