Then the bandit thrice imitated the cry of a crow; a croak answered this signal.--'Good!' said the sentry, 'you may now go on.'-- Luigi and Teresa again set forward; as they went on Teresa clung tremblingly to her lover at the sight of weapons and the glistening of carbines through the trees.

The retreat of Rocca Bianca was at the top of a small mountain, which no doubt in former days had been a volcano--an extinct volcano before the days when Remus and Romulus had deserted Alba to come and found the city of Rome.

Teresa and Luigi reached the summit, and all at once found themselves in the presence of twenty bandits.

'Here is a young man who seeks and wishes to speak to you,' said the sentinel.--'What has he to say ?' inquired the young man who was in command in the chief's absence.--'I wish to say that I am tired of a shepherd's life,' was Vampa's reply.--'Ah, I understand,' said the lieutenant; 'and you seek admittance into our ranks ?'--'Welcome!' cried several bandits from Ferrusino, Pampinara, and Anagni, who had recognized Luigi Vampa.--'Yes, but I came to ask something more than to be your companion.'-- 'And what may that be ?' inquired the bandits with astonishment.--'I come to ask to be your captain,' said the young man.

The bandits shouted with laughter.
'And what have you done to aspire to this honor ?' demanded the lieutenant.--'I have killed your chief, Cucumetto, whose dress I now wear; and I set fire to the villa San-Felice to procure a wedding-dress for my betrothed.' An hour afterwards Luigi Vampa was chosen captain, vice Cucumetto deceased." "Well, my dear Albert," said Franz, turning towards his friend; "what think you of citizen Luigi Vampa ?" "I say he is a myth," replied Albert, "and never had an existence." "And what may a myth be ?" inquired Pastrini.
"The explanation would be too long, my dear landlord," replied Franz.
"And you say that Signor Vampa exercises his profession at this moment in the environs of Rome ?" "And with a boldness of which no bandit before him ever gave an example." "Then the police have vainly tried to lay hands on him ?" "Why, you see, he has a good understanding with the shepherds in the plains, the fishermen of the Tiber, and the smugglers of the coast.