needs a hand of iron."

Garcia's operatic performances in Mexico were very successful up to the
breaking out of the civil war consequent on revolt from Spain. Society
was so utterly disturbed by this catastrophe that residence in Mexico
became alike unsafe and profitless, and the Spanish musician resolved
to return to Europe. He turned his money into ingots of gold and silver,
and started, with his little family, across the mountains interposing
between the capital and the seaport of Vera Cruz, a region at that
period terribly infested with brigands. Garcia was not lucky enough
to escape these outlaws. They pounced on the little cavalcade, and the
hard-earned wealth of the singer, amounting to nearly a hundred thousand
dollars, passed out of his possession in a twinkling. The cruel humor
of the chief of the banditti bound Garcia to a tree, after he had
been stripped naked, and as it was known that he was a singer he was
commanded to display his art for the pleasure of these strange auditors.
For a while the despoiled man sternly refused, though threatened with
immediate death. At last he began an aria, but his voice was so choked
by his rage and agitation that he broke down, at which the robber
connoisseurs hissed. This stung Garcia's pride, and he began again with
a haughty gesture, breaking forth into a magnificent flight of song,
which delighted his hearers, and they shouted "_Bravissimo!_" with all
the _abandon_ of an enthusiastic Italian audience. A flash of chivalry
animated the rude hearts of the brigands, for they restored to Garcia
all his personal effects, and a liberal share of the wealth which they
had confiscated, and gave him an escort to the coast as a protection
against other knights of the road. The reader will hardly fail to recall
a similar adventure which befell Salvator Rosa, the great painter, who
not only earned immunity, but gained the enthusiastic admiration of a
band of brigands, by whom he had been captured, through a display of his