“As to the invalid, he at first tried to step over the cord fastened across the door, but the height at which the lazzarone had fixed it was too great for wooden legs to accomplish.  He then endeavoured to untie it, but with no better success; for the lazzarone had fastened it in a knot compared to which the one of Gordian celebrity would have appeared a mere slip-knot.  Finally, the old soldier, who had perhaps read of Alexander the Great, determined to cut what he could not untie, and accordingly drew his sword.  But the sword in its best days had never had much edge, and now it had none at all; so that the Englishman was halfway to Naples whilst the invalid was still sawing away at his cord.

“The same evening the Englishman left Naples on board a steamboat, and the lazzarone was lost in the crowd of his comrades; the six plasters he had got from his employer enabling him to live in what a lazzarone considers luxury for nearly as many months.

“The Englishman had been twelve hours at Naples, and had done the three things that are most expressly forbidden to be done there.  He had abused the king, copied frescoes, and stolen a statue, and all owing, not to his money, but to the ingenuity of a lazzarone.”

The lazzarone is a godsend for M. Dumas, an admirable peg upon which to hang his quaint conceit and sly satire; and he is accordingly frequently introduced in the course of the three volumes.  We must make room for one more extract, in which he figures in conjunction with his friend the sbirro or gendarme, who before being invested with a uniform, and armed with carbine, pistols, and sabre, has frequently been a lazzarone himself, and usually preserves the instincts and tastes of his former station.  The result of this is a coalition between the lazzarone and the sbirro—­law-breaker and law-preserver uniting in a systematic attack upon the pockets of the public.

“I was one day passing down the Toledo, when I saw a sbirro arrested.  Like La Fontaine’s huntsman, he had been insatiable, and his greediness brought its own punishment.  This is what had happened.

“A sbirro had caught a lazzarone in the fact.

“‘What did you steal from that gentleman in black, who just went by?’ he demanded he.

“‘Nothing, your excellency,’ replied the lazzarone.  A lazzarone always addresses a sbirro as eccellenza.

“‘I saw your hand in his pocket.’

“‘His pocket was empty.’

“‘What!  Not a purse, a snuff-box, a handkerchief?’

“‘Nothing, please your excellency.  It was an author.’

“‘Why do you go to those sort of people?’

“‘I found out my mistake too late.’

“‘Come along with me to the police-office.’

“‘But, your excellency—­since I have stolen nothing?’

“’Idiot, that’s the very reason.  If you had stolen something, we might have arranged matters.’

“’Only wait till next time.  I shall not always be so unfortunate.  I promise you the contents of the pocket of the next person who passes.’