Around this time,
the Prince receives an official letter announcing the visit of the Secretary of the Prefecture, a man named
Aimone Chevalley di Monterzuolo. He wants to talk to the Prince about a governmental matter. The Prince is surprised and sends
Francesco Paolo to meet the visitor. The timid bureaucrat has come from the mainland and isn’t used to Sicilian ways. Worse, Sicilians keep telling him awful stories about brigands, making him paranoid. As Chevalley waits at the post station, he finds it hard to believe this backward place is really part of his own nation. He cringes when Francesco Paolo approaches him, but the fair-haired young man soon reassures him.