Brigands. 123 



my valued friend till her death. Now, alas ! many 

 of these friends are gone 



There were such troops of brigands in the Papal 

 States, that it was considered unsafe to go outside 

 the gates of Rome. They carried off people to the 

 mountains, and kept them till ransomed ; sometimes 

 even mutilated them, as they do at the present day 

 in the kingdom of Naples. Lucien Bonaparte made 

 a narrow escape from being carried off from his villa, 

 Villa Ruffinella, near Frascati. When it could be 

 proved that brigands had committed murder, they 

 were confined in prisons in the Maremma, at Campo 

 Morto, where fever prevails, and where they were 

 supposed to die of malaria. I saw Gasperone, the 

 chief of a famous band, in a prison at Civita Vecchia ; 

 he was said to be a relative of Cardinal Antonelli, 

 both coming from the brigand village of Sonnino, in 

 the Volscian mountains. In going to Naples our 

 friends advised us to take a guard of soldiers ; but 

 these were suspected of being as bad, and in league 

 with the brigands. So we travelled post without 

 them ; and though I foolishly insisted on going round 

 by the ruins of ancient Capua, which was considered 

 very unsafe, we arrived at Naples without any 

 encounter. Here we met with the son and daughter 

 of Mr. Smith, of Norwich, a celebrated leader in the 

 anti-slavery question. This was a bond of interest 



