"One day they met: it was in a lonely valley near the Alece.
"'Stand!' cried the gigantic robber, kneeling behind a rock, over which he levelled his rifle. The reins fell from the hands of the driver.
"'Villain! fire, if you dare!' cried the prince.
"The robber fired, and his bullet passed through the hat of the prince; who, levelling a double-barrelled pistol, shot four balls through the heart of his assailant. Before the arrival of the banditti, who with shouts were rushing down from the mountains, the Prince was driving at full gallop through the valley, with the body of Varro lashed to the hind axle-bar and trailing along the dusty road. Thus he entered Reggio in triumph, like Achilles dragging Hector round the walls of Troy. The body was gibbeted, and the head placed in an iron cage and sent over to Messina; when it was stuck on the summit of the Zizi palace, where it yet remains, bleached by the dew by night and the sun by day: I saw it three days ago.
"One night soon after this, a ragged little urchin presented himself in an apartment of the palace, just before the prince retired to rest.
"'Who are you, Messerino?' he asked.
"'Baptistello, the son of old Baptiste Varro.'
"'Ah! and what do you want?' said the prince, looking round him for a whip or cane.
"'My father's head.'
"'Away, you little villain, ere you are tossed over the window! I would not give it for a thousand scudi.'