Serafino was a man of war, as is every bandit; but he appears to have been of gentlemanly manners. His death occurred about thirty years ago, and many stories are preserved of his courtesy to women, and his protection of the poor. The Corsican bandit, as a rule, never robs: he is supported, either by the produce of his flocks, which he brings in by night to his native village, or by the voluntary contributions of his relations.
But, on one occasion, when Serafino found it absolutely necessary that he should possess himself of a pair of new boots, he demanded them with so much courtesy from a solitary officer of gendarmerie, not fully armed, that that individual must have felt the loss of his property almost compensated for by the genteel politeness of the robber. Serafino never permitted the poor to be molested, and it is related of him that he one day pursued and slew with his own hand a thief, who, under the false cover of his dreaded name, had deprived a peasant of his wallet,—restoring his possessions to the poor traveller.
Serafino, although a bandit pursued incessantly by the law, did not find sufficient excitement in his skirmishes with the French gendarmes, and kept up a lively vendetta on his own account with a fellow-bandit named Massoni.
On one of these occasions on which the brother bandits chanced to meet each other in the lonely maquis, Massoni's shot took effect, and deprived his enemy thenceforth of one of his fingers.
About the year 1850, Serafino met with the almost invariable end of the bandit. He was shot dead by the soldiers whilst lying asleep in his cave, having been betrayed by some villagers.
With all other bandits, he was hunted from hill to hill like a wild beast by the gendarmes, who showed no mercy and gave no quarter to the men who would have scorned to receive it, and whose whole life was spent in outwitting and murdering them and their companions.
Wonderfully brave, and even noble hearted, were many of these Corsican bandits; and it seems sad that apparently a mere chance of life should throw splendid qualities, an indomitable energy, and dauntless courage, into the cause of murder and vagabondism.
Massoni, the enemy of Serafino, roamed about the same fastnesses, and originally belonged to a Balagna family.
He was by birth a gentleman, and brave as a lion; but the unhappy vendetta had driven him from his home, believing himself a righteous avenger, but pursued by the gendarmes as a murderer.
For many years he lived amongst the mountains of La Haute Balagne, in company with his brother and another bandit called Arrighi, keeping the French police at bay, and in their frequent contests killing numbers of their pursuers.