LII.
BRIGANDAGE AS A FINE ART.
HIGHWAY ROBBERY IN MODERN TIMES.—THE OLD WORLD AND THE NEW CONTRASTED.—HABITS OF RUSSIAN ROBBERS.—PIOUS THIEVES.—PRAYERS FOR SUCCESS.—ROAD AGENTS.—CRUELTIES OF ITALIAN BRIGANDS.—TORTURE AND RANSOM OF PRISONERS.—SPANISH BRIGANDS.—ADVENTURE ON A SPANISH ROAD.—AN AMERICAN PRINCE AND AN ENGLISH DUCHESS.—AN EXCITING RACE.—A DUCHESS IN UNDRESS.
Brigandage is rapidly becoming a thing of the past in most parts of Europe, thanks to the introduction of railways, and the gradual abolition of the mail coach and diligence. In France it occurs so rarely as to cause general comment whenever an instance is reported; and in Prussia and Austria one can travel, with little danger of highway robbery, from one end of the country to the other. Russia, which has few railways, has more cases of brigandage than its western neighbors, though the government always deals very severely with robbers when it catches them. Travellers in the eastern and southern parts of the Muscovite empire frequently encounter robbers on their route, and give up their purses with as good grace as they can muster. There is a law in Russia that forbids one to fire upon robbers, unless they outnumber him three to one; but as a man who is attacked can usually make conscientious oath that he thought his assailants very numerous, he is generally excused for any violation of the statute in such cases made and provided.
The land to which most of the Russian convicts are banished, Siberia, is, curiously enough, less dangerous for a traveller than the European possessions of the czar. In a land journey of five thousand miles, in Northern Asia, I was neverdisturbed by footpads, and suffered no apprehension. Had my tour been in midsummer, there would have been less security; but as it occurred in winter, when the thermometer frequently reached forty degrees below zero, the circumstances were not favorable to lying in wait for several hours, when the prospect was good that the highwayman would freeze to death before he could find some one on whom to try his skill.
HOLDING PRISONERS FOR RANSOM.
Of all European countries, Italy is the one at present whose sculpture, begging, painting, and highway robbery have attained the highest stage of perfection. In the southern part of the kingdom robberies are of frequent occurrence, and the mountains are full of bands, that have a regular organization for plundering travellers. Sometimes the scoundrels add murder to robbery, and they have a pleasant way of holding men for ransom. If the ransom money does not come as promptly as they desire, they detach a prisoner’s ear, and send it as a gentle hint for his friends to hurry up. If the ransom is still delayed, the other ear follows, then a finger, and so on, until the unfortunate traveller is about as much his former self as Hamlet without Hamlet.
The Italian brigands are a pious lot of thieves, and when they set out on a marauding expedition, they generally offer up prayers for a successful result. Russian robbers are equally devout. There is a story of a Muscovite highwayman, who one day killed a traveller, and, while rifling his pockets, discovered a cake containing meat. Though very hungry, he could not eat the cake, as the church fast then prevailing forbade the use of meat. The King of Italy has made very earnest efforts to suppress brigandage in his dominions; but he has not succeeded, partly on account of the pope declining to coöperate with him as fully as he desires, and partly owing to the fondness of the inhabitants for a wild life. The Ex-King of Naples, who resided in Rome until quite recently, was well known to be in league with the brigands, whom he hoped at some time to make the nucleus of an army in case he should deem it prudent to endeavor to regain his throne. Men whohad been plundered on the roads of Southern Italy told me that they afterwards met their robbers on the Corso, or in the Piazza di Spagna, and saw them enter and leave the house of Ex-King Ferdinand.
ROAD AGENTS IN CALIFORNIA.
The most prosperous parts of the United States, in the matter of brigandage, as elsewhere stated, are the new states and territories west of the Missouri River. In Montana, Idaho, Nevada, and California, highway robberies are frequent; and it is sometimes the custom for the stage companies to supply passengers with rifles for their protection. But the robbers generally take the opportunity to approach when least expected, and in many cases they do not trouble the passengers, but content themselves with the treasure in charge of the express messenger. Generally the messenger shows fight, if the driver does not, and in some instances the robbers have paid dearly for their attempt. They are well armed, and the passengers usually find it best to submit, and hand over their money without grumbling. The Californians speak of these robbers as “road agents,” and I was much amused at the name the first time I heard it. I was starting from Stockton for Mariposa, and some one suggested, as I mounted to the outside of the coach, that the road agents might trouble us. I innocently asked if we were obliged to pay the tolls on the road, and suggested that the duty belonged to the company. There was a general laugh at my expense, as a fellow-passenger explained to me what a road agent was.
Spain can boast a fair allowance of brigands, though not as many as she could twenty years ago, on account of the construction of railways along the principal routes of travel. Probably the present troubles will leave the country in a very disordered condition, and for years to come there will be many men seeking their living by plundering others. The Spanish robbers are no less cruel than their Italian brethren, and they regard human life as of very little consequence. They do not hesitate to kill their victims when they think they will endanger their safety by leaving them alive. Mexico, Cuba, and the South American countries in general, copythe customs of the people who colonized them, and especially in Mexico robbery is considered one of the fine arts. Many wealthy people are not exempt from the suspicion of having acquired their property by foul means; and not unfrequently some of the high officers of the government are known to connive at the exploits of Mexican Jack Sheppards and Claude Duvals.
ADVENTURE WITH SPANISH BRIGANDS.
A few years ago a gentleman of my acquaintance had a curious adventure in Spain, which I will endeavor to relate in his own words. “I was travelling with my wife,” said he, “and we had a long ride before us to Grenada. I found that two diligences were to start the next day, one of them quite new, and the other an old one. I engaged thecoupéof the new diligence, paid for it, and was told to be ready at six o’clock the next morning. When I went there, I found that an English woman and her servant had installed themselves in our place, which they preferred to the old carriage, in which they had chartered thecoupé. I protested; but the woman cut me short with, ‘I am the Duchess of ——, and shall retain this carriage.’
“‘Ah,’ I replied, bowing low, ‘but I am the Prince Thomas of America, and my other titles are Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Salt Lake. We are all princes in America; and, madam, my wife is the Countess of Michigan, Illinois, and Kentucky.’
“But the woman repeated her title, and refused to move. She did not care for an American prince; and I was about to call the officials to eject her, when my wife said, in her hearing, ‘If she is so unlady-like as to act in this way, we will leave her to herself, and ride in the old diligence.’
“The new vehicle moved off, bearing the English duchess, and we followed ten minutes later in the old one. About two miles from the starting-point, we passed the new carriage with a broken pole, and the driver and conductor were endeavoring to get another from a neighboring farm-house. As we passed them, I shouted to our postilion that I would give him a real for every mile he kept ahead of the other carriage,and a dollar for every hour he arrived in advance of his usual time.
“He accepted the offer, and urged the horses to their best speed. Every time we changed, I distributed a few reals to the men about the stable; and I heard the postilion hint to them to make the changes as fast as possible, but to be in no hurry in supplying the other diligence. We went at a killing pace, and every time when we halted, the postilion said, ‘You will owe me a great deal of money for this; you will owe me a great deal of money.’
“I found on calculation that I should owe him a very liberal gratuity, and assured him that I would pay everything I owed. As we passed through a certain wood, I observed that he watched the road-side very closely, and soon after repeated his remark about my indebtedness to him. I could not understand what he meant, but was wiser afterwards.
ENGAGING AN ENTIRE HOTEL.
“We reached Grenada more than three hours ahead of time. There was then but one decent hotel in the place; and I knew that my duchess would be certain to go there, as it was not only the best hotel, but the point of arrival and departure of the diligence. The house was nearly full, and I engaged all the vacant rooms, paid a part of the money for them, and took a receipt. Two or three Spanish travellers arrived in the next hour, and I gave up some of my rooms to them, but enjoined the landlord under no circumstances to admit the duchess, or I would prosecute him for a violation of the contract.
“We dined, and took our ease in our room, and, after dinner was over, we watched for the other diligence, which was somewhat overdue.
“When it arrived, it was three hours behind the regular time, or six hours later than ourselves. The delay in consequence of the pole giving way had been more than an hour; but this was the least important mishap of the journey.
ROBBERY OF THE DILIGENCE.
ROBBERY OF THE DILIGENCE.
“The diligence had been robbed, and the brigands had done their work most thoroughly. They had an understanding with the drivers, whom they never disturbed, and expectedthe diligence at the wood where my postilion looked around so anxiously. The rapid rate at which I was travelling in the old carriage took us past the haunts of the robbers an hour before we were expected, and thus I unwittingly saved myself from being plundered. It turned out that the frequent remark of the postilion, that I should owe him a great deal of money, referred to this little business of robbing more than to the fast driving. By following my desires in the matter of speed, he had saved me from an encounter with the brigands, who would have relieved me of all my spare cash, and of everything else of any value to them.
“As soon as I found how the matter stood, I sent for the fellow, who had been all the time loitering about the court-yard, and asked him how much he thought I owed him. He replied with the utmost dignity, though he could not suppress a smile, that he thought ten dollars, in addition to what I had given him, would be satisfactory. I paid with alacrity, and should have been equally satisfied had he asked five or ten times as much.
ROBBING A DUCHESS.
COURTESY AND AN APOLOGY.
“The Duchess of —— had been robbed about as much as she could be. The brigands were, no doubt, indignant that our diligence had escaped them, and determined to make complete work of the one they captured. They took her trunks from the carriage, and rifled them of everything they contained. They compelled my lady to hand over all her money and jewelry, and even stripped her of her travelling-dress, leaving her to finish her journey in her under-clothing. They offered her no indignities, and were as polite as could be expected under the circumstances. Not relishing the idea of arriving at the hotel dressed as she was, she had cut away the plush lining of the carriage, and hung it around her waist as a sort of skirt of a decidedly gaudy pattern. She was the most woe-begone picture I ever looked upon, and my heart relented when I saw into what a plight she had fallen. I had fully determined not to allow her to stop at the hotel; but when she arrived in utter destitution, I told the landlord to tell her that all the rooms had been taken by the Americanprince, who was only too happy to accommodate an English duchess. She apologized for her rudeness in the morning, though she could not rid herself of her haughty demeanor.
“My wife supplied her with clothing enough to save her from inconvenience until she could communicate with the English consul. That gentleman did all in his power to aid his countrywoman, and, although he ran the risk of losing the money, he cashed her draft upon her bankers in Madrid. We left town before she did; and I think she never after set up her privilege of rank to take possession of places that did not belong to her. I have always felt obliged to her for driving me into the old diligence, rousing my indignation, and leading me to be prodigal of my money in securing the highest speed, and thus escaping robbery.”