Denton Examiner, Audenshaw, Hooley Hill and Dukinfield Advertiser. — 1877-12-22 (Denton, Greater Manchester, England)

THE BRIGAND OF VESUVIUS: AN EVENTFUL HISTORY. The Times Naples correspondent writes as follows . "Ass event has occurred this week which has carried carried us back in the history of this Province fully .iste.s, years. Ferdinand° Seaman, the last of the band of Pilone, was arrested a few days sines. Who Patine was will be remembered well by those who read the correspondence from Naples in the early years of the last decade. He was popularly known as the Brigand of Vesuvius, and every night our mountain glittered with the torches and the watchfires of those who were on the traces of the man who eluded every attempt to arrest him. Strange tales were told of hairbreadth escapes from caverns and cottages on the sides of Vesuvius, but at length he really did escape across the frontier into the Papal Staten, which were then the favoured refuge of the political criminals of the Two Sicilies. In Rome, for decency's sake, he was put in prison, where I saw him, and listened to his boastings that he was one of the first who fired a shot against the forces of the 'Usurper of the Throne of the Two Sicilies.' Like many others who return to their nest, Pilone after some years came back to this country, was recognised, and was shot in the street not far from the museum. Ferdinand° Scarpati was the last of his band, and his story ts worth telling. In 1801 he first made himself notorious by attacking, together with seven ether men, a rich merchant of Naples, whom he robbed, with threats of taking his life, of a large sum of money. Several cases of murder followed after. To escape the consequences of his crimes he fled to Rome, where he remained in safety till 1870, when political changes compelled him to leave, and he returned to this neighbourhood, defeating every attempt to lay hold of him. Singularly enough, his chosen place of refuge was the country around Vesuvius, the centre of his former enterprises, and there has he lived for six years, says the Fungal°, 'feared and respected even re- I spected —by all the peasantry, not one of whom would have dared to denounce him to: the carbineers or the police, who were every new and then upon his traces.' ,At last, however, he has been run down by our active Qurestor, or rather, wearied of his mode of life, in has given himself up. Resnia was first searched, but, not being found there, the police went to a spot on Vesuvius called the Cava di Cegnacclo: where he gave himself up without resistance. Scarpati has several sons, and a mother, who is 104 years of age; and he made it a condition of his surrender that he should be allowed to see her before being imprisoned. The wish was granted, and Scarpati,l before being brought into Naples, was taken to the I little village of St. Sebastian°, which lies at the foot of the mountain, to see the old woman—a touching incident, showing, perhaps, that, even in the greatest criminal exist some chords which, if properly struck,l would lead to his redemption. No sooner was it known that 'Mastro Ferdmando,' as he was called, ' had delivered himself up to justice, than all the inhabitants of the neighbourhood gathered together to have a last look at the old criminal, while his two sons accompanied him to the doors of the prison where they kissed his hand. Scarpati has been I arrested several times, but has always managed to escape. In 1871 he was sentenced in contumacy to twenty years' hard labour, and since then he has been nestling in the place of his birth, 'known and respected,' torepeat myself. This fact is sufficient to show the sympathy which exists, between the peasantry at least, anti I might extend the remarks to other clams, and those who are under the ban of the law, and this being so it should occasion little surprise that Sicily and Southern Italy have been reduced to comparative order with so much difficulty. To this sympathy with and connivance at crime on the part of the people will now be added those of the law, for I cannot better describe the abolition of the punishment of death. No one would have complained had it been restricted in its action, but that such heinous cases of murder as are sometimes tried before our Courts should be passed over slightly, as they will be now, is a premium on crimes of blood. 'Men would be angels,' but they are not so, and certainly have not to treat with angels in Southern Italy."