BARTOLOMEO AND THE BISHOP.

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wife, a very fine-looking woman, would sometimes staywith him a day or two at his pagliara. Sometimes hewould visit her at the house of some confidential friend orrelative.

Bartolomeo was an excellent shot; and his strength andstature enabled him to use a huge duck gun as others woulda common fowling-piece. When he shot wild boars, hewould put half a dozen ounce balls at once into his gun, bywhich he generally brought down that hardy animal at thefirst shot.

I have stated that each of the Pantanari were expected topay a yearly rent to the Bishop of Aversa. The collectionof it being no easy matter, the Bishop was glad to receiveas much as was brought to him by the rent payers them-selves. I do not well remember the origin of a differencebetween the Bishop and Bartolomeo, hut such arose; andon the part of the former it partook of all the virulence andmalice of the well-known “ Odium Theologicum.” TheBishop contrived to set the police upon poor Bartolomeo,and tacked several fresh charges to the old ones that hetook care to rip up, and expose with store of exaggerations.

Guidobaldi, the prefect of police, of course took partwith the Bishop, and consequently issued orders for thearrest of Bartolomeo ; orders not very easy of execu-tion. It was a long time before the police could learn inwhat part of the marshy wilderness their intended victimresided. Having been warned of the danger, he hadabstained from approaching Aversa, or Vico di Pantano.Unless one of the identical ditches leading to his pagliarawas found and recognised, the searching party might losethemselves in the waste, and get entangled in the mazesof ditches, holes, and quagmires, into which the stranger issure to fall over head and ears. Even buffalos, an almostamphibious animal, often perish when they lose their way.