outside. If a second traveller had passed, he would have seen a
strange thing, — a shepherdess watching her flock, clad in a
cashmere grown, with ear-rings and necklace of pearls, diamond
pins, and buttons of sapphires, emeralds, and rubies. He would, no
doubt, have believed that he had returned to the times of Florian,
and would have declared, on reaching Paris, that he had met an
Alpine shepherdess seated at the foot of the Sabine Hill. At the
end of a quarter of an hour Vampa quitted the grotto; his costume
was no less elegant than that of Teresa. He wore a vest of
garnet-colored velvet, with buttons of cut gold; a silk waistcoat
covered with embroidery; a Roman scarf tied round his neck; a
cartridge-box worked with gold, and red and green silk; sky-blue
velvet breeches, fastened above the knee with diamond buckles;
garters of deerskin, worked with a thousand arabesques, and a hat
whereon hung ribbons of all colors; two watches hung from his
girdle, and a splendid poniard was in his belt. Teresa uttered a
cry of admiration. Vampa in this attire resembled a painting by
Leopold Robert, or Schnetz. He had assumed the entire costume of
Cucumetto. The young man saw the effect produced on his betrothed,
and a smile of pride passed over his lips. — `Now,' he said to
Teresa, `are you ready to share my fortune, whatever it may be?' —
`Oh, yes!' exclaimed the young girl enthusiastically. — `And follow
me wherever I go?' — `To the world's end.' — `Then take my arm, and
let us on; we have no time to lose.' — The young girl did so
without questioning her lover as to where he was conducting her,
for he appeared to her at this moment as handsome, proud, and
powerful as a god. They went towards the forest, and soon entered
it. We need scarcely say that all the paths of the mountain were
known to Vampa; he therefore went forward without a moment's
hesitation, although there was no beaten track, but he knew his
path by looking at the trees and bushes, and thus they kept onpath by looking at the trees and bushes, and thus they kept on
advancing for nearly an hour and a half. At the end of this time
they had reached the thickest of the forest. A torrent, whose bed
was dry, led into a deep gorge. Vampa took this wild road, which,
enclosed between two ridges, and shadowed by the tufted umbrage of
the pines, seemed, but for the difficulties of its descent, that
path to Avernus of which Virgil speaks. Teresa had become alarmed
at the wild and deserted look of the plain around her, and pressed
closely against her guide, not uttering a syllable; but as she saw
him advance with even step and composed countenance, she endeavored
to repress her emotion. Suddenly, about ten paces from them, a man
advanced from behind a tree and aimed at Vampa. — `Not another
step,' he said, `or you are a dead man.' — `What, then,' said
Vampa, raising his hand with a gesture of disdain, while Teresa, no
longer able to restrain her alarm, clung closely to him, `do wolves
rend each other?' — `Who are you?' inquired the sentinel. — `I am
Luigi Vampa, shepherd of the San-Felice farm.' — `What do you
want?' — `I would speak with your companions who are in the glade
at Rocca Bianca.' — `Follow me, then,' said the sentinel; `or, as
you know your way, go first.' — Vampa smiled disdainfully at this
precaution on the part of the bandit, went before Teresa, and
continued to advance with the same firm and easy step as before. At
the end of ten minutes the bandit made them a sign to stop. The two
young persons obeyed. 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 citywhen 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. They seek for him in the mountains, and he is on the waters;
they follow him on the waters, and he is on the open sea; then they
pursue him, and he has suddenly taken refuge in the islands, at