struction which
had procured me the character of being a magician. I would hide it from
human gaze, and cherish it as a sort of fetish. So I bought a walking-
stick and an umbrella, and strapped it up with them, wrapped in my plaid;
and when, shortly after, an unexpected remittance from an aunt supplied
me with money enough to buy a horse from one of the officers of my
friend's regiment, which soon after arrived, I accepted their invitation
to accompany them on their brigand-hunting expeditions, not one of them
knew that I had such a weapon as an air-gun in my possession.

Our _modus operandi_ on these occasions was as follows: On receiving
information from some proprietor that the brigands were threatening his
property,--it was impossible to get intelligence from the peasantry, for
they were all in league with the brigands; indeed they all took a holiday
from regular work, and joined a band for a few weeks from time to
time,--we proceeded, with a force sufficiently strong to cope with the
supposed strength of the band, to the farm in question. The bands were
all mounted, and averaged from 200 to 400 men each. It was calculated
that upwards of 2000 men were thus engaged in harrying the country, and
this enabled the _Neri_ to talk of the king's forces engaged in
legitimate warfare against those of Victor Emmanuel. Riding over the
vast plains of the Capitanata, we would discern against the sky-outline
the figure of a solitary horseman. This we knew to be a picket. Then
there was no time to be lost, and away we would go for him helter-skelter
across the plain; he would instantly gallop in on the main body, probably
occupying a _masseria_. If they thought they were strong enough, they
would show fight. If not, they would take to their heels in the
direction of the mountains, with us in full cry after them. If they were
hardly pressed they would scatter, and we were obliged to do the same,
and the result would be that the swiftest horsemen might possibly effect
a few captures. It was an exciting species of warfare, partaking a good
deal more of the character of a hunting-field than of cavalry
skirmishing. Sometimes, where the ground was hilly, we had Bersaglieri
with us; and as the brigands took to the mountains, the warfare assumed a
different character. Sometimes, in default of these active little
troops, we took local volunteers, whom we found a very poor substitute.
On more than one occasion when we came upon