necessary to hang a man—­a rope, a gallows, and the man himself.  In this instance, the first two were easily found, but the third was unfortunately wanting.  Gendarmes and soldiers were sent after Vardarelli, but the latter was too cunning for them all, and slipped through their fingers at every turn.  His success in eluding pursuit increased his reputation, and recruits flocked to his standard.  His band soon doubled its numbers, and its leader became a formidable and important person, which of course was an additional reason for the authorities to wish to capture him.  A price was set on his head, large bodies of troops sent in search of him, but all in vain.  One day the Prince of Leperano, Colonel Calcedonio, Major Delponte, with a dozen other officers, and a score of attendants, were hunting in a forest a few leagues from Bari, when the cry of ‘Vardarelli!’ was suddenly heard.  The party took to flight with the utmost precipitation, and all escaped except Major Delponte, who was one of the bravest, but, at the same time, one of the poorest, officers of the whole army.  When he was told that he must pay a thousand ducats for his ransom, he only laughed, and asked where he was to get such a sum.  Vardarelli then threatened to shoot him if it was not forthcoming by a certain day.  The major replied that it was losing time to wait; and that, if he had a piece of advice to give his captor, it was to shoot him at once.  The bandit at first felt half inclined to do so; but he reflected that the less Delponte cared about his life, the more ought Ferdinand to value it.  He was right in his calculation; for no sooner did the king learn that his brave major was in the hands of the banditti, than he ordered the ransom to be paid out of his privy purse, and the major recovered his freedom.

“But Ferdinand had sworn the extermination of the banditti with whom he was thus obliged to treat as from one potentate to another.  A certain colonel, whose name I forget, and who had heard this vow, pledged himself, if a battalion were put under his command, to bring in Vardarelli, his two brothers, and the sixty men composing his troop, bound hand and foot, and to place them in the dungeons of the Vicaria.  The offer was too good to be refused; the minister of war put five hundred men at the disposal of the colonel, who started with them at once in pursuit of the outlaw.  The latter was soon informed by his spies of this fresh expedition, and he also made a vow, to the effect that he would cure his pursuer, once and for all, of any disposition to interfere with the Vardarelli.

“He began by leading the poor colonel such a dance over hill and dale, that the unfortunate officer and his men were worn out with fatigue; then, when he saw them in the state that he wished, he caused some false intelligence to be conveyed to them at two o’clock one morning.  The colonel fell into the snare, and started immediately to surprise Vardarelli, whom he was assured was in a little village