CHRONICLE. 



97 



man as much money as would 

 carry him back to his home. 

 Another waggon with a party of 

 colliers, the one which had come 

 by the way of Henley, was met 

 by the magistrate at Maidenhead : 

 the same representations were 

 made to the men; and with the 

 same success as at St. Alban's • 

 the coals were bought, and the 

 men, agreeing to return home, 

 received sufficient to carry them 

 thither. The magistrate who had 

 been sent on the Uxbridge road 

 has not been able to find any party 

 on that road, and therefore it is 

 believed that the onlv ones were 

 the party that came by St. Al- 

 ban's, and the party that came by 

 the Oxford road. 



6. Naples. — Accounts from the 

 Calabrias state tranquillity to be 

 daily re-establishing there. Tlie 

 civic guards are every where on 

 foot, and display indefatigable 

 zeal in pursuing the brigands. 

 The most terrible of these mon- 

 sters, who had hitherto found an 

 asylum in the movmtains, has just 

 been arrested in the neighbour- 

 hood of Monteleone. He is called 

 Becamorto. The force of his 

 body is prodigious ; and the peo- 

 ple regard him as an Anthropo- 

 phagus. The fact is, that he al- 

 ways has with huii some human 

 bones, in the form of St. Andrew's 

 cross. It is said he drinks the 

 blood of the animals he kills. 

 This wretch began his career in 

 Sicily. He was afterwards taken 

 by Barbary pirates, and engaged 

 to serve them in their expeditions. 

 He had been for eight months 

 since his return in the island of 

 Lipari, where he laid all the 

 country under contribution with- 

 out having even been arrested. 



VoL.Lvm. 



His very name causes terror. 

 Five of his accomplices were taken 

 with him ; and the law will soon 

 deliver society from these mon- 

 sters. 



8. Beauvais. — A remarkable 

 transaction, and of which there 

 certainly exists no example, has 

 just occurred in the commune of 

 Choisy, arrondissement of Cler- 

 mont. A brother and two sisters, 

 united by a similarity of habits, 

 lived in a solitary ho\ise, sur- 

 rounded by a considerable piece 

 of ground, which they cultivated 

 in common. They were of a 

 respectable family, and their pa- 

 rents had given them a good edu- 

 cation. One of the sisters had 

 lived for some time in Paris, 

 where she had acquired such a 

 taste for the toilette as to eclipse 

 the richest farmers' wives of her 

 neighbourhood. On returning, 

 however, to live under the pa- 

 ternal roof, she speedily renounced 

 her elegant dress ; and clothed 

 herself in the same garments as 

 her brother and sister. The bro- 

 ther wore neither stockings nor 

 breeches, and was usually dress- 

 ed in a long tunic of coarse cloth, 

 fastened round the waist by a belt 

 of straw. In winter he added to 

 this habiliment some skins of ani- 

 mals. The costume of the sisters 

 was much the same, except that 

 instead of straw they used pieces 

 of cord for their girdles. In- 

 ternally their house exhibited the 

 appearance of the most extreme 

 wretchedness : there was neither 

 bed, table, nor chair, nor any 

 article of furniture whatever. 

 The only things to be seen were a 

 large wooden crucifix and an old 

 pail filled with muddy water, 

 which served them for drink. 

 H They 



