Without throwing a single glance at the body, Mateo went back to his house to fetch a spade with which to bury his son. He had only returned a little way along the path when he met Giuseppa, who had run out alarmed by the sound of firing.
"What have you done?" she cried.
"Justice!"
"Where is he?"
"In the ravine; I am going to bury him. He died a Christian. I shall have a mass sung for him. Let someone tell my son-in-law Tiodoro Bianchi to come and live with us."
1829.
[1] Corporals were formerly the chief officers of the Corsican communes after they had rebelled against the feudal lords. To-day the name is still given sometimes to a man who, by his property, his connections and his clients, exercises influence, and a kind of effective magistracy over a pieve or canton. By an ancient custom Corsicans divide themselves into five castes: gentlemen (of whom some are of higher, magnifiques, some of lower, signori, estate), corporals, citizens, plebeians and foreigners.
[2] Voltigeurs: a body raised of late years by the Government, which acts in conjunction with the gendarmes in the maintenance of order.
[3] The uniform of the voltigeurs was brown with a yellow collar.
[4] A leather belt which served the joint purposes of a cartridge-box and pocket for despatches and orders.