CORSICAN BANDITS,

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1672, 12 February 1913, Page 4

CORSICAN BANDITS,

PAOLI BETRAYED BY HIS DOG,

No wonder the novelists set their sensational scenes in Corsica, for the Corsican Maquis still shelters its brigands of thoreal-notthe histrionic—breed. Of such is Jean Thomas Paoli, who for years has terrorised tho region of Borgo, near Bns-

tia. For a long timo tlio police lad been hot on his track, and somehow or other they.,learned that ho had taken refuge —in accordance with tho best traditions of brigandage—in a cave in the hills near Borgo. The point was to find the entrance to his lair. Pa'oli's watchdog nlaved innocent traitor to his master. He 'is a sort of mythical monster in tho neighbourhood, with which to terrorise fractious infanta to slumber, and his description is in tho hands and note-books of all tho guardians of the law. His shaggy mane and ferocious howl were recognised, by the Brigadier Franchi, who, in.spite of the warning of his sols companion, tho gondnrmo Frcciani, boldly entered tho forbidding tunnel into which tho dog had retired. The two had advanced onlv a few paces when both fell—Franchi with-a bullet under tho right eye, Freciani wounded in tho right arm. They struggled out of this corridor of death and sent to Bostia for reinforcements. Then a siege began. First thero was somo question of blowing up Hie cave with dynamite, but after long deliberation this idea was abandoned as likely to involve more dancer to the besiegers than the besieged. Then someone, recalling, no doubt, the r>enny dreadfuls of his youth, siisxpsled Hint the "vermin should be smoked out of fioir loir."

No sooner said than attempted. Tho mouth of Hie. cave was. piled liitrh with green fagpfils, ami a dense column of acrid smoke swirled and eddied with n favouring wind into tho tortuous recesses. .So nn hour passed by the wntch—time enough, it was reckoned, to ensure the asphyxiation of the boldest, of brigands. Then the, smouldering wood was kicked aside, and, smi'zing nnrt coughing, the besiegers entered to find no resistance— (•A liml, in 'fact, )intl>ii»; h>»l 'nobody nt nil. for, of course, J'jnli's refuge was'provided with (lie necessary adjunct of nnv folf-respec!/!iig bri&'and'B cove—a sccru't oxit,