ieve it must be allowed that with respect to the disregard of the
rights of proprietorship, of which the lower classes are accused, there
are sufficient instances on record to counterbalance, in some degree,
my personal experience; but there is this to be urged in favour of that
class of culprits, where such are met with, that their mode of operation
is far more manly and courageous than that of the depredators of some
other climes--by which means they obtain also the full reputation of
their misdeeds. There may scarcely be said to be anything mean or
degrading in their manner of thieving: and their system is itself a
proof that they see no sin in it. They take to the mountains, and
declare open war against those whom they consider the unjust
monopolizers of wealth.

Instances of this sort are no doubt frequent in Spain; in Toledo they
relate that, some years since, the passes of Estremadura were occupied
by one of the most formidable and best organized of these bands, under
the orders of a female. Various versions were given of this woman's
history; but the one most accredited accounted in the following manner
for her having adopted the profession of freebooter. A young lady of
rank had disappeared from her family residence, leaving no trace by
which to guide conjecture as to her fate. It was therefore presumed she
had been kidnapped. The event, however, had already long ceased to be a
subject of conversation in the district, when three or four years after,
a traveller, who had escaped from an attack of banditti, announced the
fact of their being commanded by a woman. Although well disguised, her
voice, and delicate figure had betrayed her sex. The fact was
subsequently confirmed by positive discoveries; and, at length,
confiding in the alteration time and her mode of life had produced in
her appearance, she ceased to make a mystery of the circumstance, and
headed the attacks, mounted usually on a large black horse. Her age and
beauty coinciding with the description given of the young countess who
had disappeared some years previously, gave rise to the supposition of
their identity. The band has been since dispersed, and many of them
captured; but their chief has contrived to escape, and it is probable
the truth respecting her may never be divulged.

It is said she at times exercised more pitiless cruelties than are
usually practised by the male chiefs of the regular banditti; and that,
after such acts,--as though con