A Village Commune Author:Ouida Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER H. EANWHILE, Messer Gaspardo went homeward to his rooms in the Municipio and sent for Bindo. Bindo Terri was one of the rural guards that had been put... more » on the roll of the civic power of Vezzaja and Ghiralda to see to the due enforcement and carrying out of the three hundred and ninety-six new rules, with their various articles of which the Giunta was the putative, but Messer Nellemane was the actual, father. Bindo was a great scamp who was now sedulously bent on proving the wisdom of the adage, seta thief to catch a thief; he had been a blackguard all his youth ; but as he loafed about in Santa Eosalia, snaring birds and running errands, Messer Nellemane, with the shrewd eye that was so useful to him, had discerned in this loafer the making of an officer of the State; and so strongly recommended Bindo to his master, Durellazzo, that the Syndic had said, ' Va bene, va benissimo,' when it was proposed to clothe vagabond Bindo in hodden grey, with a belt and a short sword, and a feather in his hat, and make a rural guard of him in the interests of the commune; the zeal of Bindo being stimulated to boiling point by the fact that he was promised half of every fine that he could impose upon the violators of the new code of Vezzaja and Ghiralda. This zealous functionary Messer Gas- pardo now called to him and said: ' What character does the eldest son of the miller Pastorini bear ? ' Bindo, who more than once in years before his promotion had had a drubbing from the Pastorini for stealing corn, replied promptly: 'He is a savage character, disrespectful to authority, and masterful.' ' A dangerous character ? I thought as much. Has he ever been in trouble ? Bindo shook his head sorrowfully; the Pastorini, father and sons, were quiet, Godfearing, sturdy, honest f...« less