END OF A LONG CAPTIVITY.

Thames Guardian and Mining Record, Volume I, Issue 9, 17 October 1871, Page 3

END OF A LONG CAPTIVITY.

RELEASE OP BRIGANDS AFTER PORTY-SEVEN YEARS’ IMPRISONMENT. The correspondent of the London Morning Post at Rome sends from there, on August 3rd, the following interesting account of the release of the survivors of a celebrated band of brigands, who were imprisoned by the Papal Government in 1824 : For many years travellers in Italy used to reckon among the remarkable sights of the country, and well worthy of a visit, the veteran brigand chief, Antonio Gasparoni, of Sonnino, a fellow-citizen, and, according to some published accouuts, a relation of Antonelli’s family. In consequence of the extraordinary measures of severity adopted in 1824 by the Pontifical Government for the extirpation of brigandage, Gasparoni caused his intention to surrender to be made known to the Government. A priest acted as negotiator between tlie contracting parties, and such favourable conditions were offered by Cardinal Pallotta that Gasparoni and bis band, then consisting of thirty-six blood-stained brigands, who had been for some years the terror of the provinces of Velletri and Frosinono, laid down their arms and abandoned their mountain fastnesses to accept the clement offers of the Supreme Pontiff. What was really promised to these penitents I cannot state, but I recollect when I visited Gasparoni and his fellow-prisoners, 10 years ago, in the fortress of Civita Castellaua, the veteran told me distinctly that he had stipulated for himself and his companions in arms personal liberty and pensions for their lives as tlie condition of their voluntary submission, and that these terms had been accepted by the Government. Such conditions were not observed however, for no sooner had the brigands laid down their arms than they were pounced upon, handcuffed, end marched in chains to Rome, making a very sensational entry by the Porta San Giovanni. Since then, without ever being tried, they have remained constantly' confined, sometimes in one fortress and sometimes in another, but for the last fifteen or twenty 7 years at Civita Castellaua, where, in 18G1, I found their numbers had dwindled down to seventeen. I have still a portrait of the hawk-eyed chief, with his venerable white beard, executed in tlie pre-Raphae-lite style, and very much resembling tlie original, by the secretary of the band, Pietro Masi, who, although originally only a peasant of Frosinone, evidently 7 had a taste for literature as well as the fine arts, having written and published, in French and Italian, a narration of tlie exploits of Gasparoni’s band. Gasparoni personally 7 had his release offered to him on several occasions by the Papal Government; but, from a sentiment of delicacy to be admired in a brigand, lie refused to accept of liberty unless shared by bis followers. An old Pontifical law established that any 7 person shut up in prison without ever liav ing been tried for thirty yoars, bliould be entitled ipse facto to liberty, aud as the

Italian laws do not allow of any one being kept in prison without the sentence of a tribunal, the Minister of Grace and Justice has considered it right to rostoro to liberty the survivors of their 47 years’ incarceration. They are now only seven in number—the veteran chief, Antonio Gasparoni,a shepherd of Sonnino in his youth, now 79 years old; the secretary, Masi, aged 70; Domenico Falova, peasant, of Fondi, aged 75; Pietro Cipolla, peasant, of Valle Corea, aged G 9 ; Filippo Ciccone, peasant, of Sonnino, 72; Francesco Nardoni, cowherd, of Valle Corsa, 67; and Alessandro Lconi, butcher, of Sonnino, 78.

The first five, in consequence of an ar rangement between the Italian authorities and Monsignor Theodoli, director of tho Pilgrim’s Hospital, have been received into that establishment, in consideration of their age and impotence to work. They enjoy complete liberty, and tho boon has been conferred upon them so late in life, that it is not to be feared they will now make a bad use of it. The other two, Nardoni and Lconi, returned on Monday to their native places, Valle Corsa and Sonnino, mountain villages on the Neapolitan frontier, celebrated for brigandago from time immemorial. The seven superannuated bandits arrived from Civita Castellana in the picturesque costume so well known to painters in Rome, and immortalized by Iloraco Vcrnet with long white beards, and silvery locks flowing on their shoulders. Numerous visitors crowd tho Pilgrims’ Hospital every day, curious to gaze upon the once formidable Gasparoni, and the remnants of his ferocious band. But not content with mere homage, or perhaps impatient to enjoy their newlyacquired liberty after so many years deprivation of that incomparable blessing—doubly dear to mountaineers—Gasparoni and his hoary-headed comrades have for the last two or three days indulged in evening strolls through the city, followed by a curious crowd, and cheered with frequent cries of “ Viva, Gasparoni!” It is difficult to explain why Gasparoni should be made the lion of the day ; why the “ fat and greasy citiscns,” who would have been frightened at the bare name of him in the province of Frosninone, should now elbow each other to obtain a shako of his hand, or vie with each other for the honor of treating the venerable brigand to a mezzo of wine. But such is the fact. The furore of the Romans just now is for fliese historic bandits ; and if the jubileed and infallible Pius IX. were to emerge from the Vatican to-morrow with all his quondam pomp, or Victor Emmanuel walk up the Corso arm in arm with Garibaldi, the rabble would abandon both the spiritual and temporal sovereign, and even the popular hero himself, to follow Gasparoni along the Plaza Narona to the Ospizio dei Pellegrini, The crowd around the brigands was so great yesterday in front of the Pantheon that some of the admiring spectators came to blows, and it required the peculiarly persuasive arguments of the Questor’s agents to restore order.