In the course of a tour of some weeks on the shores of the Adriatic, I heard more than one disquieting report.

Near Rimini the house of a landed proprietor was besieged by a little army.

In one place, all the inmates of the goal walked off, arm-in-arm with the turnkeys; in another a diligence came to grief just outside the walls of a city.

If any particular district was allowed to live in peace, it was because the inhabitants subscribed and paid a ransom to the brigands.

Five times a week I used to meet the pontifical courier, escorted by an omnibus full of gendarmes, a sight which made me shrewdly suspect the country was not quite safe.
But if the Government is too weak or too careless to undertake an expedition against brigandage, and to purge the country thoroughly, it sometimes avenges its insulted authority and its stolen money.