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spirit of association began to rise among the people, theyunited, -forming small companies which took contracts for sup-plying the materials necessary for the works; some undertook toprovide and transport the stone required for the revetement ofthe dam, others contracted for the earthworks and excavations;there were those who burned lime, and those who suppliedtimber , while others became carriers by land and by water ;in short, little by little, that population which till then had noother choice than that between vegetating in its own countryAvithout any hope of bettering its condition, or leaving it in or-der to seek fortune elsewhere, began to wake up to activity andto industry. Emigration ceased from those villages which suppliedAvorkmen, and Avhen there came times like the years 1856 and1857 , in Avhich the rising of the lake had already submergeda considerable extent of territory, and the price of provisionsran unusually high, owing to the failure of the crops, they wereall in a position to live comfortably through the difficult times,Avithout being obliged to abandon their firesides, as they Avouldhave had to do if the Fucino works had not been going on.

These first results of the enterprize of Prince Torlonia ,so soon surpassed all expectations, that even those avIio hadforeseen them, Avere surprized at the rapidity with Avhich theirdevelopment took place. Moreover the time came, in xvhich themost superficial observer could perceive that the Fucino workshad profoundly modified the moral and economical conditionsof the population of the country near the lake. It Avas greatly

feared, and not Avithout reason , that brigandage , Avhich AA r as

committing great havoc in some of the Neapolitan provincesafter the events of 1860 , xvould select the country of the Marsias a favourable position in which to establish one of its headquarters ; Everything seemed to invite the brigands, not onlythe mountainous character of the country, but its proximity toa frontier behind Avhich those outlaAvs Avould find a safe refuge;

and yet, in spite of all this, although some bands often traver-

sed, and even Avandered about for some time in the mountainsof the sous-prefecture of Avezzano , none Avere ever able to