When Don Silverio rejoined the Vicar of Sant Anselmo the latter asked him anxiously how his errand had sped.

“It was a waste of breath and words,” he answered.  “I might have known that it would be so with any Government official.”

“But you might have put a spoke in Count Corradini’s wheel.  If you had told Gallo that the other is trafficking —­”

“Why should I betray a man who received me in all good faith?  And what good would it have accomplished if I had done so?”

And more weary than ever in mind and body he returned to Ruscino.

As he had left the Prefect’s presence that eminent person had rung for his secretary.

“Brandone, send me Sarelli.”

In a few moments Sarelli had appeared; he was the usher of the Prefecture by appointment; by taste and in addition he was its chief spy.  He was a native of the city, and a person of considerable acumen and excellent memory; he never needed to make memoranda —­ there is nothing so dangerous to an official as written notes.  “Sarelli, what are the reports concerning the vicar of Ruscino?”

Sarelli stood respectfully at attention; he had been a non-commissioned officer of artillery; and answered in rapid but clear tones —­

“Great ability —­ great eloquence —­ disliked by superiors; formerly great preacher in Rome; supposed to be at Ruscino as castigation; learned —­ benevolent —­ correct.”

“Humph!” said Gallo, disappointed.  “Not likely then to cause trouble or disorder? —­ to necessitate painful measures?”

Sarelli rapidly took his cue.

“Hitherto, your Excellency, uniformly correct; except in one instance —­”

“That instance?”

“Your Excellency will have heard of Ulisse Ferrero, a great robber of the lower Abruzzo Citeriore Primo?”

“I have:  continue.”

“Ulisse Ferrero was outlawed; his band had been killed or captured, every one; he had lost his right arm; he hid for many years in the lower woods of Abruzzo; he came down at night to the farmhouses, the people gave him food and drink, and aided him —­”

“Their criminal habit always:  continue.”

“Sometimes in one district, sometimes in another, he was often in the macchia of the Valdedera.  The people of the district, and especially of Ruscino, protected him.  They thought him a saint, because once when at the head of his band, which was then very strong, he had come into Ruscino and done them no harm, but only eaten and drunk, and left a handful of silver pieces to pay for what he and his men had taken.  So they protected him now, and oftentimes for more than a year he came out of the macchia, and the villagers gave him all they could, and he went up and down Ruscino as if he were a king; and this lasted for several seasons, and, as we learned afterwards, Don Silverio Frascara had cognisance of this fact, but did nothing.  When Ulisse Ferrero was at last