When I was at St Miklos there was great excitement over the recent capture of a famous robber chief, whose band had kept the country-side in a state of alarm for some months past.  I was asked if I would like to go and see him, and of course I was glad to get a sight at last of one of the robbers of whom I had heard so much in my travels.  I was never more surprised than, on arriving in front of a very shaky wooden building, to be told that this was the prison.  A few resolute fellows might have easily broken in and effected the rescue of their chief.

There was no romance about the appearance of the miserable wretch that we found within, stretched on a rough bed with wrists and feet heavily ironed.  These manacles were hardly needed, for he was severely wounded, and seemed incapable of rising from his pallet.  I never saw so repulsive a countenance; and the flatness of the head was quite remarkable.  His eyes were very prominent, and had the restless look of a hunted animal, which was painful in the extreme; but there was absolutely no redeeming expression of human feeling in the dark coarse face.  Well, there was something human about him though.  I was told he had been photographed that morning, and that he had expressed considerable satisfaction at the idea of his portrait being preserved.  He was under sentence of death!  There were various stories told of his capture, but I think the following is the true account.  It appears that he and his gang made their appearance from time to time in the forest round the well-known watering-place of Borsek.  When visitors were on their way to the baths, they were frequently stopped by the robbers in a mountain pass, in the immediate neighbourhood of a dense forest that stretches far away for miles and miles over the frontier.  It was the custom of the robbers to demand all the money, and they would relieve the travellers of their fur cloaks and overcoats, and other useful articles; but if they did not offer any resistance, they were permitted to go on uninjured, to take their cure at the baths.  I should doubt, however, that anybody would be welcome there without a well-filled purse; at least I judge so from what I heard of the eminently commercial character of the place.

The robbers had the game in their own hands for a long while, but they made a mistake one fine day.  They stopped a handsome equipage, which seemed to promise a good haul; but lo, behold, it was the Obergespannirz, the lord-lieutenant of the county!  He had four good horses, and so saved himself by flight.  But the authorities now really bestirred themselves, and the soldiers were called out to exterminate this troublesome brood.  They were accompanied by a renowned bear-slayer who knew the forest well.  It was with great difficulty that they succeeded at last in tracking the robbers, or rather robber, for it was only the chief who was trapped after all.  It appears that the soldiers and their guide came