hero of many an
apocryphal tale--already his compatriots boast of his manifold
achievements, and express their doubts whether any other country in Europe
could produce a thief so clever, so accomplished, so gentlemanly, as
Vidocq.

Germany has its Schinderhannes, Hungary its Schubry, and Italy and Spain a
whole host of brigands, whose names and exploits are familiar as household
words in the mouths of the children and populace of those countries.

The Italian banditti are renowned over the world; and many of them are not
only very religious (after a fashion) but very charitable. Charity from
such a source is so unexpected, that the people doat upon them for it. One
of them, when he fell into the hands of the police, exclaimed, as they led
him away, "Ho fatto piu carita!"--"I have given away more in charity than
any three convents in these provinces." And the fellow spoke truth.

In Lombardy, the people cherish the memory of two notorious robbers, who
flourished about two centuries ago under the Spanish government. Their
story, according to Macfarlane, is contained in a little book well known
to all the children of the province, and read by them with much more gusto
than their Bibles.

Schinderhannes, the robber of the Rhine, is a great favourite on the banks
of the river which he so long kept in awe. Many amusing stories are
related by the peasantry[48] of the scurvy tricks he played off upon rich
Jews, or too-presuming officers of justice--of his princely generosity,
and undaunted courage. In short, they are proud of him, and would no more
consent to have the memory of his achievements dissociated from their
river than they would have the rock of Ehrenbreitstein blown to atoms by
gunpowder.

[48] For a full account of this noted robber, and indeed of
European thieves and banditti in general, see the very
amusing work upon the subject by Mr. Charles Macfarlane.

There is another robber-hero, of whose character and exploits the people
of Germany speak admiringly. Mausch Nadel was captain of a considerable
band that infested the Rhine, Switzerland, Alsatia, and Lorraine, during
the years 1824, 5, and 6. Like Jack Sheppard, he endeared himself to the
populace by his most hazardous escape from prison. Being confined at
Bremen, in a dungeon on the third story of the prison of that town, he
contrived to let himself down without exciting the vigilance of the
sentinels, and to swim across the Weser,