it is with the utmost pleasure that i am able to communicate to the english-speaking world a literary document of capital importance which my readers had only too great reason to mourn as lost. it will be remembered that my poor friend the hack, recently deceased in the neighbourhood of the king's road, suffered in his last hours from the fear that the world might never receive his two masterpieces which he had so long promised them, "the story of the hungry student" and "the brigand of radicofani." it will also be remembered that on reaching his humble lodgings after the publication of the first, i discovered him to be dead, and feared, therefore, that the second of these two classics would never be discovered. i am delighted to say that a rag and bottle merchant and dealer in kitchen stuff near the world's end (which is a landmark in that neighbourhood) has been found in possession of the precious paper, which by a providential accident is still legible, although it had been used to wrap up two boot-brushes and a second-hand[pg 184] pot of blacking. such coincidences are not unknown in the history of english letters.
* * * * * *
a young colonial journalist, full of a great determination to succeed in life, but insufficiently equipped for that ambition, had occasion to visit the country north of rome in the year 1903. he had been sent by his proprietors to gather information upon the customs of the peasantry for a series of articles which they designed to publish; he had orders to photograph these natives with or without their leave, and to acquire such a knowledge of the local dialects as would permit him to converse with them.
with his numerous adventures in the extinct volcanoes of that district i need not detain you, nor tell you of how he was imprisoned in ronciglione, fined by a magistrate in viterbo, nor how he was soundly beaten by a drunken mason in the town of bolsena, whose lovely lake he still remembers with associated feelings of admiration and regret. it is more to my purpose to retail how in each of these towns as he wandered northwards, and at every intervening house of call, he was perpetually reminded of the brigand of radicofani. some, when he would ask them questions upon their local habits, would reply, "oh, go and discuss it with the brigand of radicofani"; others, when he attempted to stammer his experiences of the road, would tell him that the brigand would make a better audience than they. the magistrate who fined him at viterbo[pg 185] made an allusion to the brigand of radicofani which he caught but ill, but which provoked, to his annoyance, considerable laughter in court. the policeman who locked him up in ronciglione turned the key with an allusion to the same individual, and even the drunken mason in the very act of beating him in bolsena bade him begone to the brigand of radicofani. as for acquapendente, the town was full of rumours about this strange man, the children in the streets, who should have known better, took the young colonial twice for the brigand and followed him in chorus, calling him by that name; while a little brown man who was pushing a barrow assured him with great solemnity that he was taking its contents of private refreshment for the brigand of radicofani.
it may be imagined with what eagerness the journalist left the town next morning by the northern road and with what curiosity of attention he marked the little town of radicofani perched upon its distant conical hill and glaring white under the hot morning. "there," said he to himself, as he laboriously panted up the last slope, "i shall find a character indeed worthy of so many pains, and discover something perhaps of permanent value for the history of this ancient land."
he seated himself in the principal room of the first inn he came to within the gate and boldly asked whether it were possible at that hour to interview the brigand. the young woman who was the[pg 186] mistress of the house looked at him for a moment in a sort of stupor, then bursting into wild cries not unmixed with laughter, she fled from him and left him for quite a quarter of an hour alone; she returned with a little crowd of radicofanian burgesses who stood round, hats in hand, looking at him lugubriously. at last the oldest of them, a man with a noble head, handsome and grey, said to him solemnly—
"do we understand, excellence, that you desire to see the well-known brigand of radicofani?"
"that is so," replied the journalist manfully. "i am indeed sorry if my pursuit of such an audience seems impertinent, for i recognise the high position held by this gentleman in your community; and i am equally sorry if i have given you any trouble by my request. but as i am deputed by a foreign newspaper of high standing to discover what i can of the customs of an ancient land, i could hardly proceed onward to the notable town of sienna and leave behind me uninterviewed the principal personage of your countryside."
"not a word," said the grave leader of that band, "it is a pleasure to serve one who takes so flattering an interest in our poor affairs. if your excellency will but wait a moment and read the local newspapers, one of which he will discover to be religious, the other of contrary tone, the brigand shall shortly be introduced to you."
heartened by this promise, the young journalist[pg 187] read with some care the leading articles of the greasy rags before him, and maintained his dignity and his apparent attention to the text in spite of occasional openings of the door accompanied by the giggling and elbowing of the curious who, in out-of-the-way places, infest a stranger.
at last the door opened wide before the sweeping gesture and the advancing stride of one accustomed to command, and the brigand of radicofani stood before the traveller.
his dress was picturesque in the extreme: he had on knee breeches ornamented with parti-coloured ribbons, his calves were swathed round with crisscross bands, a rustic pipe hung from his belt, which also sheathed four knives of different dimensions with variegated and curious carved handles. aslant across these he wore a naked dagger quite eighteen inches long; a gloomy cloak depended from one shoulder; upon his head was a steeple-crowned hat, very tall and pointed, and adorned, like the rest of his person, with ribbons of gay hue. in either ear he wore an enormous ring of gold, and black ringlets which shone with some oily substance depended in profusion from either side of his head. this extraordinary figure was completed by a gigantic blunderbuss with a bore about the size of a duck gun and ending in a huge bell mouth quite nine inches across.
the brigand (for it was he) startled the journalist by asking in a terrible voice what he wanted with[pg 188] him, and bidding him be brief and to the point in his interrogations or demands. as he so spoke he tapped with his left hand the curious handle of his dagger, keeping his fist clenched upon his haunch and his right arm akimbo, while his left leg and foot were advanced in a martial and even in a threatening manner. the young colonial, who was acquainted—by his reading—with many situations of danger, summoned all his firmness, begged the brigand to share the wine which stood before him, and assured him that he had only disturbed his leisure in order to hear from the lips of one so justly prominent in the ancient and noble town of radicofani memories of its great past intermingled, as he hoped, with records of the brigand's individual career.
mollified by such an address, the great man sank into the rickety chair opposite the journalist, assumed the attitude of the warrior at ease, and began with plentiful and dramatic gesture the recital of many things.
brigandage, he assured his companion, was now by no means the trade it had been; he had himself taken to the road at the early age of fifteen, having been persuaded to that industry by an uncle of his, a canon of viterbo. "for in the old days" (he was careful to add) "this country was very easily administered, and the clergy in especial defended and encouraged the picturesque customs which such an ease of administration bred. often after a hard[pg 189] night upon the highway, or after some successful business in the brushwood above the city, i would make it my business to call upon my revered uncle to press upon him some trinket as a mark of my esteem, or if the day had been exceptionally lucky, some piece of foreign gold which a tourist (for they were even then numerous in these parts) might have left in my possession. the old man died," continued the brigand with a sigh, "in the year '68, during the reign of the late pope pius ix, and it was perhaps as well, for great changes were impending which, had he lived to see them, would have broken his heart. for myself," the brigand went on thoughtfully, "i am too much of a patriot to complain of the unification of my country, and i had some hopes on the establishment of a new government of obtaining a permanent situation under it which, as i was now approaching middle age, would be more consonant to my years than the precarious though active and healthy career i had hitherto pursued. for some moments in the year 1873 i hoped i might be appointed receiver of the taxes, a post for which my intimate knowledge of the whole countryside and my many connections with the farmers of the locality seemed singularly to fit me. a former chief of mine, for whom i had always preserved a reverent attachment, was very powerful in this department, and assured me that i might look for a regular post so soon as he was himself installed in the office of the fisc at orvieto. but there!" continued the[pg 190] brigand, sighing, "loyalty and gratitude are sentiments soon dissipated in the atmosphere of politics, and though i had the pleasure of seeing my old chief installed as the head of his department, no such post as he had hinted at came my way. meanwhile trade sank: artists, literary men, and poor fowl of that sort still thought it an eccentric and therefore a desirable thing to approach the eternal city by road, and these i would not infrequently be at the pains of carrying off for ransom; but it was a dwindling and a most unsatisfactory trade. the wealthy took more and more to the railway; the new government at the quirinal, after a certain amount of hesitation, definitely decided upon a policy inimical to our profession, if not actually hostile to it. my advancing years, and the various circumstances i have detailed, made the dear old life less and less possible, until one day" (here he sighed again profoundly) "in '93, just ten years ago, i was constrained to accept a situation as a model under an agency which provides such individuals for the entertainment of foreigners. i was already old (i am over seventy as you see me here and now), but i often think with bitterness as i poise upon one leg in an attitude of flight, or shield my eyes with my hands with a gesture that is very much applauded by the ladies who sketch me—i often think with bitterness, i say, as i adopt these various attitudes to order, of the days when i was known as the lion of the amiata, when my name was a terror from far[pg 191] beyond the tiber to the marshes that border the mediterranean sea."
the old man was silent, and the journalist, who had been busy taking notes, and was profoundly moved by the recital he had heard, asked the brigand most deferentially and in a gentle tone whether these memories did not stir him to some particular story, and whether he could not recite before the stranger left some especially telling incident of his great past.
"why," mused the vigorous old man, rising slowly from his chair, "i think i can reconstruct for you that famous occasion which the old wives still tell as a winter story, when i held up the syndic of montefiascone, and without the trouble of binding him to a tree nor of inflicting the slightest mutilation, i acquired for the purposes of my expenditure all that was movable upon his person. come, let us reconstruct the scene." he put a heavy hand upon the young journalist's shoulder, looking round the room as he did so for a favourable stage upon which to order the drama.
the colonial rose at the same time, and the brigand, shaking his head, and growling like a monarch of the forest, muttered deeply: "no, no, this place is too small!"
with the moving of the chairs many had come into the little inn parlour and followed the pair out into the blazing market square, and the brigand led the now dubious journalist into that public place.[pg 192] their appearance in the open was the signal for a great gathering; children ran from narrow alleys, market women rushed up with shrill voices, farmers engaged in bargaining left their sport for the superior attractions of the scene, and loud cries of "the brigand is going to work—come and see the brigand" were heard upon every side. the journalist maintained his dignity, and even allowed a faint smile to flicker upon his anxious lips as the brigand, pacing the cobblestones of the market-place in a thoughtful manner, decided the spot where his companion should stand.
"here," he said, stamping with his foot, "this was about the distance."
the journalist found himself alone, the crowd retired at some fifty yards; before him was the street leading northward out of the town towards sienna; it was empty. he turned and saw facing him the large concourse of people recounting to each other the interest of the proceedings; and he further perceived that the brigand, who stood a little in front of them all, was slowly disembarrassing his blunderbuss from the innumerable details of his costume.
"thus," shouted the old giant in a terrible voice, "stood i. there where you are stood the syndic. come, look slightly away and upwards as though you did not perceive me, for such was the syndic's attitude upon the occasion in question. make as though you were walking leisurely, but do not actually take a step, for that would destroy the[pg 193] reconstruction of the scene which i am arranging for your entertainment."
with great deliberation the brigand of radicofani next proceeded to pour into the huge bell mouth of his blunderbuss a measure of gunpowder from a horn; next he rammed in a piece of the anticlerical newspaper with the rusty ramrod which he had with difficulty drawn from its rings; he replaced the ramrod, and as deliberately dropped into the mouth of his deadly instrument a number of large leaden slugs.
"thus," said he as he made these preparations, "did i carefully load while the unsuspecting syndic leisurely crossed before my line of fire."
as he said these words the brigand slowly raised the blunderbuss to his shoulder, leaned his great body forward, and bent his head until an eye of extraordinary brilliance and power was gleaming down the top of the barrel. the concourse was now silent, and the journalist, with an admirable sense of what was required of him, adopted the attitude of a man walking at a leisurely pace, and acted to perfection the part of the syndic.
"halt!" roared the brigand in startling and quite novel tones. the journalist instinctively started, and the brigand bitterly added: "must i fire, or will you spare me that expense by laying carefully upon the ground at your feet your watch, your purse, your rings, your pocket-book, and such valuables as you may have about you?"
[pg 194]
the journalist with no little hesitation (for he found this too realistic) threw down a coin byway of simulacrum.
"he mocks me!" bellowed the brigand, while all the crowd applauded. "he hesitates to obey (thus did i speak to the syndic). come, empty all your pockets and turn them inside out that i may see them."
the journalist, excusing his pride by the reflection that the whole thing was but a game, with some reluctance did as he was bid. there lay at his feet upon the market square of radicofani a little heap of valuables, a quantity of private correspondence, a handkerchief and a note-book.
"now," shouted the brigand, still carefully aiming at the foreigner's head, "go! go warily, and step backward if you choose, to assure yourself that i shall not lower my gun."
for some few steps the journalist so walked toward the northern gate, and step by step, keeping his distance, the immense old man pursued, while the crowd with subdued applause, encouraged his action, and with rising menaces bade the stranger not cross the brigand's purpose, since upon these occasions he was terrible if he was thwarted. when he had nearly reached the limits of the town the unfortunate traveller began to protest that the joke should end. to his horror the reply which reached him, not from the brigand alone but from many of his supporters, was given in tones of increasing sincerity, and he[pg 195] shuddered to see, or to think he saw, the pressure of the finger upon the trigger. he hesitated for a moment, and then suddenly he ran....
the northern road out of radicofani is steep: its steepness aided his flight, and when he was well down toward the valley he heard (and that increased his determination) a loud report, and high over his head sung a covey of slugs. he neither looked back nor attempted to order his confused mind, but ran without ceasing until from sheer exhaustion he dropped at the roadside.
to his delight he saw two mounted policemen in splendid uniforms. he recounted his tale; they looked at him severely, and one of them, beckoning with his finger, said, "follow us."
he followed them for miles and miles. of how he was subsequently examined, disbelieved, threatened with fine and imprisonment, and at last escaped only by an appeal to his consul in sienna, you may read in the interesting memoirs which he is about to publish under the title of "etruscan wine and song."
meanwhile in radicofani the brigand drinks and sings.
