f solemn oaths of vengeance. A female thief once said,
"If it were true that those who refuse to pardon will be damned
eternally, I should still withhold my forgiveness."

_Cruelty_ depends on moral and physical insensibility, those incapable
of feeling pain being indifferent to the sufferings of others.

The post of executioner was eagerly competed for at the prison of
Rochefort. Mammon used to drink the blood of his victims and when this
was not to be had, he drank his own. The executioner Jean became so
maddened by the sight of blood flowing beneath his lash, that guards
were stationed to prevent undue prolongation of the punishment. Dippe
wrote: "My chief pleasure is beheading. When I was young, stabbing was
my sole pastime."

It has often been observed that the ferocity of women exceeds that of
men. Rulfi killed her own niece, whom she detested, by thrusting long
pins into her, and the female brigand Ciclope reproached her lover for
murdering his victims too quickly.

_Idleness._ Like savages, criminals are dominated by an incorrigible
laziness, which in certain cases leads them to prefer death from
starvation to regular work. This idleness alternates with periods of
ferocious impulsiveness, during which they display the greatest energy.
Like savages, too, they are passionately fond of alcohol, orgies, and
sensual pleasures, which alone rouse them to activity.

_Orgies._ Those who have observed children absorbed all day long by a
game that pleases them, can understand the meaning of these words,
spoken by a woman: "Criminals are grown-up children." The love of
habitual debauch is so intense that, as soon as thieves have made some
great haul or escaped from prison, they return to their haunts to
carouse and make merry, in spite of the evident danger of falling once
more into the hands of the police.

_Gambling._ The passion for gambling is so strong that the criminal is
always in a penniless condition, no matter how much treasure he has
appropriated, and cases of starvation in prison are not unknown,
prisoners having sold their rations in order to gratify this vice.

_Games._ Many primitive and cruel amusements, similar to the pastimes of
savages, have been preserved or reconstructed by criminals. Such are
the games known to Italian offenders as "La Patta," in which one of the
players tries to avoid being struck while passing his head between two
points brought together horizontally by another, who stands wit