A Night's Adventure in the Papal States.

Cromwell Argus, Volume I, Issue 41, 24 August 1870, Page 7

A Night's Adventure in the Papal States.

Tho Standard's Italian correspondent says the following extraordinary story is going the round of the papers : —A. wealthy gra- j zier, from the neighborhood of Viterbo, in the Pontifical States, drove a quantity of cattle to market, found a buyer for the lot, and after making merry in the town for the rest of the day, after the fashion of his class, set out towards nightfall on his homeward journey, in the company of a neighbour. This neighbour stood towards him on that footing of bastard relationship expressed in Italian by the word compare —one of the two ; that is to say, he was godfather of the other’s child. The two proceeded together until their respective roads diverged, and then, after drinking a glass together in a rustic wine-shop, separated. The grazier, who made no secret of having bank notes about him to the value of 5000 francs, the proceeds of the sale of his bullocks, went on his way with a light heart, and perhaps a somewhat unsteady gait, the consequence of having pretty frequently lifted his hand to hi ß month during the course of the day. At about half-a-mile from the place where he hud taken leave of his compare , our wayfarer was molested by three masked individuals, whose object was evidently robbery, but who, finding nothing upon his person, for the grazier in a lucid interval had secreted his money under the lining of his hat, let him go without offering any further violence. The grazier, however, after thanking the saints for his good fortune, judged it prudent to retrace his steps, and to ask for hospitality that night under his compare's roof. The latter received him with open arms, and, after having heard the story of the attempted robbery, and what means the design had been fiustrated, laid the cloth for supper, plied the flask anew, and sent his guest to bed in apparently as comfortable a condition as could have been desired. But the adventure of the night prevented the wine from taking I its natural effect, and do what he would our grazier could not compose himself to sleep, and lay tossing to and fro on his couch in a state of nervous excitement that seemed to have strung all his senses to an unusual degree of tension. He heard ' strange noises in the house, and the sound i of stealthy footsteps under his window. At last lie could bear it no longer, so, rising from his uneasy bed, he approached the casement, and cautiously opening the shutters, beheld a strange sight in the yard beneath. The moon shone clear and distinct, enabling the grazier to see four men digging a pit. They were the compare, and his three sons, whose general appearance bore a suspicious resemblance to that of the three masked robbers already mentioned. With his heart in his mouth, but snmmoul ing up all his resolution, the grazier noiseI Icssly lifted the hasp, opened the window a few inches, and soon heard enough to convince him that his life was in imminent peril. The father was to mount the stairs, despatch the sleeper in his bed, and then fling the body down into the yard. The young men were to do the rest. The grazier, looking hastily about him for some means of defence, lighted upon an old spade lying in the corner of the room, seized it, and placed himself in ambush behind the door. Yon may imagine what followed: the compare, when all was ready, crept up stairs, gently opened the door, and, knife in month, introduced his head and shoulders through the narrow opening. Down with terrible force came the grazier’s spade upon the rascal’s skulk and there was no need to repeat the blow. The story then says that the intended victim, animated, no doubt, by a sentiment of poetic justice, dragged the body to the window, and let it fall into the yard. A moment afterwards he was once more on the high road, on his way to the nearest police-station. When he returned with a party of carbineers to the scene of his narrow escape, he found the pit refilled, the earth carefully trodden down, and the three young men anxiously looking for 1 their father. When they saw the grazier safe and sound in the company of the police, they could not believe their eyes. But a greater astonishment was in store for them when the carbineers, after plying the spade lustily for a few minutes, unearthed the body of their poor papa—the grazier’s compare. —whom in their hurry, being probably novices in the trade, they had toppled without scrutiny into the grave destined for their guest !