In the towns the ovens in which bread is baked are usually inside the houses, but in the villages bread is baked in stone bread-ovens placed by the road-side. Some villages seem to possess more bread-ovens than houses. Aleria certainly has a full share. If the number of ovens be limited, the people have to take their turn at baking the family loaves, and only one baking-day in each week can be allowed to each family. Corsican bread is hard enough on the day when it is baked. On the seventh, when it is thoroughly stale, it requires a hammer and chisel to make a hole in the crust. On baking-days big bundles of blazing shrubs are first put into the oven, and the whole of the interior is made almost red-hot. The ashes are swept out with a branch, and the loaves are placed on the hot stones and left there for about a couple of hours. The old Genoese fort is picturesque, but useless. Its presence, however, reminds us of the strange history of King Theodore. In a previous chapter we have stated that the Genoese got possession of Corsica about the middle of the fourteenth century, and that they kept it for nearly 400 years. The people made many attempts from time to time to get rid of the foreigners, whom they hated violently, on account of their cruel and oppressive rule. One of the most interesting chapters in the story of this struggle for freedom is that which relates the doings of Theodore van Neuhoff. He was a German, born at Metz in 1696, and brought up as a page at the Court of the Duchess of Orleans. He led a very roving life, and in the course of his wanderings he arrived one day at Genoa. It happened that at that very time a number of Corsicans had been brought as prisoners to the city. Theodore talked to the captives, and from them he learned of the efforts which the Corsicans were making to be free. From Genoa he went to Leghorn, where he met a powerful Corsican nobleman. He promised this man that he would undertake to drive the Genoese out of the island in less than a year provided only that in return he should be elected King of Corsica. The proposal was considered and accepted, and early on the morning of March 12, 1736 (that is, during the reign of our King, George II.), he arrived at Aleria. The people crowded to the shore to welcome the new-comer, whom they expected to bring arms and ammunition. Theodore was dressed in a curious fashion. He had on a long Persian vest of scarlet silk, Moorish trousers, yellow shoes, and a Spanish hat and feather. He carried a pair of pistols in his belt, a sabre at his side, and a truncheon in his hand by way of a sceptre. With him were sixteen attendants--two Frenchmen, eleven Italians, and three Moors. Everyone anxiously watched the discharge of the ship’s cargo. This included 10 pieces of cannon, 4,000 muskets, 3,000 pairs of shoes, 700 sacks of grain, a great deal of ammunition, and some casks filled with money. Theodore handed all these things over to the chief men of the island,