560 THE BRIGANDS OF APULIA. 



recollection vouchsafed on the vanquished : every thing, even to 

 their names, was Romanized. 



The only truly grand and monumental remains that still exist, are 

 a vast line of walls, called Cyclopaean, buried in the caves of that 

 city of Bcecarium, formerly so rich and flourishing, and which has 

 left its name to the little miserable modern town of Boca3no. These 

 enormous masses, hidden for ages past from the light of day, are the 

 silent records of the powerful architecture of the ancient Samnites* 

 In them alone still lives their fame on them is written their 

 names. 



Baffled in my search of the past, I returned to the present, and 

 strove to discover in the modern Samnites some traces of their fore- 

 fathers, since I found none among their ruins. 



The modern Samnite poor, and confined in winter in chambers 

 rent by the earthquake, or unroofed by the tempest, speaks with 

 pride of the riches and military glory of his ancestors, and the recol- 

 lection of former greatness appears to console him for the oppression 

 and degradation of his present condition. Hemmed-in among their 

 mountains, like beasts of prey, these degenerate tribes appear to have 

 inherited from their ancestors but their love of resistance, and, in 

 fact, their whole existence is one continued struggle against the cruel 

 and feeble government which oppresses them. But, degenerate as 

 they are, tha public courage, the living wreck of a proud and high- 

 spirited people would still be found among them, did the laws but 

 know how to develope it : but, unfortunately, it is allowed to 

 slumber, or to exhaust itself in scenes of intestine blood and discord. V 



The manners of the modern Samnites are rude and ferocious, and ^ 

 if they no longer find vent upon the fields, there are forests and 

 mountains, which are but too often the scenes of murder and revenge. 

 That fierce enefgy which in one age makes a people great, in 

 another reduces it to a nation of bandits. In this country brigandage 

 grows out of the violent order of things that exists ; it is the only 

 road left open to independence and individual justice, for every 

 where is independence proscribed as rebellion, and justice enchained 

 at the foot of oppression : and then misery, that powerful counsellor 

 of crime, is there with all her seductions to legalize and finish the 

 work of blood. 



When I passed the Motese it was infested by a band, whose chief 

 had been the terror of the whole country for the last twenty years, 

 and is said to have killed forty persons with his own hand, five less 

 than are attributed to the famous Roman brigand, Garbaroni, now 

 confined at Civita Vecchia, where travellers go to visit him as an 

 object of curiosity. This chief had only the evening before stopped 

 a priest on the mountain, and burnt him to death to gratify his re- 

 venge. There is no stratagem that human ingenuity has invented 

 that had not been put in practice by this bandit j but the secret of 

 his impunity is as follows: The inhabitants of the neighbouring 

 town of Cusano, doubtless delighted at having always at their devo- 

 tion a well-sharpened poniard, in a country, too, where the sword 

 and the eye of justice so often slumber, protected the brigand, and 

 covered him with their mantle, A gentleman to whose hospitality I 



