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MAGNANIMOUS ACT OF KING JOACHIM. 437

locality. But I must curb in my desire to give moreparticulars, and proceed to shew how the horrors of intes-tine strife and organized assassination, lately establishedby the last Anglo-Sicilian expedition, which landed severalthousand malefactors on the coast, was stopped and anni-hilated by the strong hand of unlimited authority, which,under the circumstances, could alone cope with the des-perate evil.

Whilst the king was even present in Calabria , with sopowerful a portion of his army, those very provinces occu-pied by him, and others also, were afflicted by the mostdreadful excesses committed by the brigands, landed sometime previously by the English . : Isolated soldiers, strayingin the immediate neighbourhood of his camp, were dailysurprised and killed. ■ One day, on the plain of Palma,the king met with a man who, bound, was being hurriedalong by the gendarmes. ‘ The king stopped and askedwho it was that they thus led prisoner? upon which thecaptive, promptly seizing the opportunity, was the firstto answer. “ Sire, I am a brigand, but worthy of pardon,because yesterday, as your majesty was ascending themountain of Scilla, I was concealed behind a rock, andcould have killed you. The thought occurred to me, andI prepared my arms ; but on your near approach, thedignified and pleasant aspect of your majesty stayed myhand. If yesterday I had killed the king, things wouldhave been in such a state that I should not now be a pri-soner, and at the point of death.” The king granted himfull pardon, and giving him a purse of gold, replied:—“ Go and use your abilities to gain an honest living; hereis something to begin with.” The man, unbound, cast him-self before the king and kissed his horses’ knees;—then,after a few brief well spoken words of thanks, departed forhis native village, where he ever after lived industrious and