rd, made the sign of the
cross, took the gun which was hanging over the fireplace, and went out.

"When he spoke of this later on, he said: 'I don't know what was the
matter with me; it was like fire in my blood; I felt that I must do it,
that, in spite of everything, I could not resist, and I concealed the
gun in a cave on the road to Corte.

"An hour later, he came back, with nothing in his hand, and with his
habitual air of sad weariness. His sister believed that there was
nothing further in his thoughts.

"But when night fell he disappeared.

"His enemy had, the same evening, to repair to Corte on foot,
accompanied by his two groomsmen.

"He was walking along, singing as he went, when St. Lucia stood before
him, and looking straight in the murderer's face, exclaimed: 'Now is the
time!' and shot him point-blank in the chest.

"One of the men fled; the other stared at, the young man, saying:

"'What have you done, St. Lucia?' and he was about to hasten to Corte
for help, when St. Lucia said in a stern tone:

"'If you move another step, I'll shoot you in the leg.'

"The other, aware of his timidity hitherto, replied: 'You would not dare
to do it!' and was hurrying off when he fell instantaneously, his thigh
shattered by a bullet.

"And St. Lucia, coming over to where he lay, said:

"'I am going to look at your wound; if it is not serious, I'll leave you
there; if it is mortal I'll finish you off."

"He inspected the wound, considered it mortal, and slowly reloading
his gun, told the wounded man to say a prayer, and shot him through the
head.

"Next day he was in the mountains.

"And do you know what this St. Lucia did after this?

"All his family were arrested by the gendarmes. His uncle, the cure,
who was suspected of having incited him to this deed of vengeance, was
himself put in prison, and accused by the dead man's relatives. But
he escaped, took a gun in his turn, and went to join his nephew in the
brush.

"Next, St. Lucia killed, one after the other, his uncle's accusers, and
tore out their eyes to teach the others never to state what they had
seen with their eyes.

"He killed all the relatives, all the connections of his enemy's family.
He slew during his life fourteen gendarmes, burned down the houses of
his adversaries, and was, up to the day of his death, the most terrible
of all the bandits whose memory we have preserved."

The sun disappeared behind Monte Cinto and the tall shadow of