THI fiRICANUS OF APULIA. 



Three brothers of Larino. named Ruggieri, had by their licen* 

 tiousness drawn down upon themselves the public detestation ; but, 

 brave and resolute, they were more feared than hated. These men 

 would carry off married women with impunity, after half murdering 

 their husbands, and carried so far their insolence as to force open 

 the doors, and make nocturnal irruptions into the houses of the 

 citizens. 



At last the patience of the population was exhausted. To entrust 

 to the tribunals the care of avenging them would have been useless ; 

 besides, the outrages were personal, and their revenge should be the 

 same. But, not daring openly to attack the Ruggieri, they con- 

 spired secretly. One was shot while hunting, and another was 

 murdered in a tavern. 



The third took refuge in a cobler's stall, barricaded and defended 

 himself for three days against the whole population, but, betrayed by 

 the cobler, the last of the Ruggieri rushed into the middle of the 

 crowd, and cutting his way through with heroic intrepidity, was 

 on the point of escaping, when he was struck down by a musket 

 shpt 



This unheard-of act of private vengeance this bloody outrage 

 against every principle of society, took place in 1810, under the 

 dynasty of Napoleon. 



The habit of taking the law into their own hands is so inveterate 

 that it prevails every where. A wood in litigation between two 

 villages of the province, Compolieto and Repabottoni, spread division 

 among the inhabitants for more than a century. Worn out, at length, 

 by the delays of justice, they came to blows, and fought for a whole 

 day for the right. There is not a town or village which has not 

 some similar page in its annals. 



All these scenes were related to me on the spot, by men who had 

 been either actors in them, or eye-witnesses to them. This admix- 

 ture of law and perfidy seems to indicate in the inhabitants a mind of 

 no ordinary cast. In fact, extremes meet here ; for the modern Sam- 

 nitcs, so unsophisticated in some respects, are in others spoilt by a 

 corrupt civilization. But I persist in thinking that they possess all 

 the elements of a high-spirited poople, and which only require useful 

 institutions to develope them for the benefit of society. Nature must 

 never be forced -she requires only to be directed. Observing that I 

 took a great interest in these details, my host, all the magistrates and 

 high functionaries of the country, promised to introduce me to a man 

 who had taken the lead in the extermination of the Vardarelli, the 

 most numerous and formidable of all the bands which had devastated 

 the country. The name of this man was Nicola Campofreda ; he 

 resides at Porta Canone, a village near Termoli. I accordingly set 

 out for his residence. My road lay across woods of oaks, and paths 

 marked by mountain torrents, till I descended into the plain of 

 Biferno, a profound solitude, where the terror of the brigands still 

 reigns. I walked for several hours ; not a vestige of man animated 

 the desert: some herds of wild cattle fled at my approach, and left 

 the desert to its solitude. At last I reached JPorta Canone, and re- 

 paired to .the house of Don Nicholas Campofreda,, the victor of the 



