Brigands

Brigands (Ital. brigante, from briga, 'an intrigue or quarrel'), a name originally given to the mercenaries who held Paris during King John's imprisonment (1358), and who made themselves notorious for their ill-behaviour. It was applied by Froissart to a kind of irregular foot-soldiery (see BRIGANDINE), and from them was transferred to simple robbers; it is now used especially of such of these as live in bands in secret mountain or forest retreats. In this sense, the pest has been common to most countries, by whatever name the robbers may have been known—whether the escaped slaves and gladiators of Rome, the pre-Islamite brigands of Arabia, English outlaws and highwaymen, German robber-nobles, the later banditti of Mediterranean countries and of Mexico, American stagecoach robbers, Australian Bushrangers (q.v.), or the dacoits and hill-robbers of Asia. It has ever flourished under weak or corrupt governments, and patriotism at times has swelled its ranks, always largely recruited from those disposed readily to join in any political movement, and has transformed them into guerilla companies, who have carried on a bitter warfare against the invader. Such Spanish bands harassed the French during the Peninsular war; in Italy, the Austrian troops were frequently engaged in expeditions against the banditti led by the daring Bellino ('Il Passatore'); and in Greece, the Klephts rendered brave and worthy service in the war of independence. In Cuba, in 1888, political discontent was made the excuse for the brigandage then rampant in the island, where four provinces were on this account declared in a state of siege. Religious persecution also has encouraged brigandage; in Bosnia, which has always produced the most perfect specimens of bandits, it was formerly very common, the unhappy Christians, who were reduced by the Turks to the condition of serfs, frequently taking to the mountains in despair, and thence wreaking vengeance on their oppressors. Gener- ally speaking, in countries with a notably scanty population, which is yet in many districts as notably overcrowded, brigandage will be found still in existence. Vigorous steps have been taken during the last fifty years to repress the practice, and in some countries with signal success. In Greece, organised companies of brigands, as distinguished from bands of highway robbers fortuitously collected, have disappeared; and in Italy, the chiefs with whom princes made treaties are found only in history. Nevertheless, brigandage is by no means obsolete. In Hungary, where it has flourished from time immemorial, and where even the free towns in the 15th century enrolled companies for organised rapine, and thus raised it to the height of an institution, it has found a stronghold in the shades of the Bakony Forest, whose swineherds are said to be in league with the bétvárs, and even to do an occasional stroke of business on their own account. In Sicily it is to be feared that this is still the only trade which really prospers in the island (see MAFIA); and the bands that infest the Turkish frontier are notoriously dangerous to the wayfaring merchant and the defenceless tourist. In 1887 special attention was attracted by the boldness of brigands in the Pyrenees, Tuscany, Servia, Macedonia, Asia Minor, and Mexico; and from the United States several cases of train-robbery were reported.