Norfolk Gazette And Publick Ledger

Royal Robber. A famous robber, called St. Rochetto, has lately been apprehended in Piedmont. He has been the chief and creator of 16 bands of robbers in the Alps, of whom 306 have been executed. He never had any fixed residence, but he knew the Alps, and all retreats in those mountains; and wherever he went he had the talent to form new bands, and to inspire his followers with the most violent hatred against the French, of whom he acknowledges to have killed, with his own hands, upwards of 120, and that his comrades during the last war, have, by ambuscades which he has prepared, destroyed upwards of 150 republicans. The jealousy of one of his mistresses delivered him up to St. Benigno.

Memorials concerning many of his transactions were found upon him, and receipts from different priests and friars for 2,560,000 livres, which he had given to churches and convents to have masses and prayers said for obtaining the assistance of the Virgin Mary in his undertaking. He had besides a list of 50 persons whom he intended to dispatch this year as soon as possible, among whom were two Buonapartes, vice-president Melzi, generals Menou, Murat, St. Cyr, &c.

On his way to Turin he knocked out the brains of a gen-d'arme with his hand-cuffs, and bit the nose of another who attempted to tie his hands on his back. He is a very strong man, and his body covered with hair like a goat.