plundered me, for sixty dollars. I now conceived a faint hope that if
it went to Rome, I might somehow or other regain possession of it.

In the mean time day declined, and no messenger returned from Tusculum.

The idea of passing another night in the woods was extremely
disheartening; for I began to be satisfied with what I had seen of
robber life. The chieftain now ordered his men to follow him, that he
might station them at their posts, adding, that if the messenger did
not return before night they must shift their quarters to some other
place.

I was again left alone with the young bandit who had before guarded me:
he had the same gloomy air and haggard eye, with now and then a bitter
sardonic smile. I was determined to probe this ulcerated heart, and
reminded him of a kind of promise he had given me to tell me the cause
of his suffering.

It seemed to me as if these troubled spirits were glad of an
opportunity to disburthen themselves; and of having some fresh
undiseased mind with which they could communicate. I had hardly made
the request but he seated himself by my side, and gave me his story in,
as nearly as I can recollect, the following words.

THE STORY OF THE YOUNG ROBBER.

I was born at the little town of Frosinone, which lies at the skirts of
the Abruzzi. My father had made a little property in trade, and gave me
some education, as he intended me for the church, but I had kept gay
company too much to relish the cowl, so I grew up a loiterer about the
place. I was a heedless fellow, a little quarrelsome on occasions, but
good-humored in the main, so I made my way very well for a time, until
I fell in love. There lived in our town a surveyor, or land bailiff, of
the prince's who had a young daughter, a beautiful girl of sixteen. She
was looked upon as something better than the common run of our
townsfolk, and kept almost entirely at home. I saw her occasionally,
and became madly in love with her, she looked so fresh and tender, and
so different to the sunburnt females to whom I had been accustomed.

As my father kept me in money, I always dressed well, and took all
Opportunities of showing myself to advantage in the eyes of the little
beauty. I used to see her at church; and as I could play a little upon
the guitar, I gave her a tune sometimes under her window of an evening;
and I tried to have interviews with her in her father's vineyard, not
far from the town, where she sometimes walked. S