Bandits, brigands, pirates, rovers by land and sea,--these names were gloried in by the ancient heroes, who thought their profession as noble as it was lucrative.

Nimrod, Theseus, Jason and his Argonauts; Jephthah, David, Cacus, Romulus, Clovis and all his Merovingian descendants; Robert Guiscard, Tancred de Hauteville, Bohemond, and most of the Norman heroes,--were brigands and robbers.

The heroic character of the robber is expressed in this line from Horace, in reference to Achilles,-- _"Jura neget sibi nata, nihil non arroget armis_," [27] and by this sentence from the dying words of Jacob (Gen.

xlviii.), which the Jews apply to David, and the Christians to their Christ: _Manus ejus contra omnes_.

In our day, the robber--the warrior of the ancients--is pursued with the utmost vigor.