Mezzoni the Brigand — page 187: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

MEZZONI THE BRIGAND. 179 CHAPTER XIX. THE LAST STRUGGLE. One of the first acts of the police, after the arrest and incarceration of the brigands, was to send a few trusty men into the mountain, and after remov- ing all the valuables, fire-arms and the like from the robbers’ cave, to blow it up with gunpowder, leay- ing not a vestige of the villainous den, not one stone upon another. This was, as afterward appeared, the headquarters of the organization extending to the northern range of the Apennines, and its break- ing up was considered of immense importance by the government. An official examination of the secret vault in the Corrello palace showed that complete means existed there for melting down gold and silver articles into mass, a necessary process before attempting to dis- pose of stolen manufactured goods. There was also found to be a sort of well in one corner of the vault, into which the most unavailable and yet valuable articles had been deposited for the time being, in- tended, no doubt, to form a resort when other re- sources should at least fail to be productive. Great sensation was caused by the success of the authorities in breaking up the den and arresting the brigands, who had so long been the terror of Naples and its environs. The government, without waiting for a trial, for once showed its promptness, and awarded the heavy sum which had been offered for the arrest of Mezzoni. This sum was apportioned to the satisfaction of the detective, the officers, and the comicbooks : / a (ee) . : ~ " =