Mezzoni the Brigand — page 17: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

MEZZONI THE BRIGAND. 9 all over Southern Europe, and had been the terror of citizens and travelers for a number of years. He was reputed to have amassed great wealth, to be very shrewd and cunning, and that he was able to outwit the government at all points, had been proven for years by his successful operations, especially in and about the environs of Naples. Mezzoni was thoroughly informed of all matters that it interested him to know, and had means of gaining intellizence which was perfectly inexplica- ble to the authorities. It was believed that he always acted as his own spy, and his facilities for disguise and the assuming of any character which he chose to personate, rendered him one of the most danger- ous villains of the time. For a long while the officials believed that they must have some traitor among themselves, as it was impossible to make a movement against the banditti which was not anticipated by them. This famous bravo had been known to penetrate into the city hotels of Naples, in female attire, where, under pretense of being. a vender of coral or- naments, or some other local specialty, he gained the information which he sought, and retired unsus- pected. And yet no description of his person existed which was considered at all reliable; he had some- how succeeded in frustrating all attempts at such ex- posure. He was talked of as possessing prodigious strength, and being of a hideous aspect of countenance, a man of mammoth proportions, and blood-thirsty to the last degree. Persons who had been kidnapped upon the road and held for ransom had never been permitted to see him personally, or if they had met him it was under comicbooks.cor