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ONCE A WEEK.

.

aware, of course, that the capture of your cousin puts an end to oar unwelcome stay It will be our duty to inarch with him at onco that same evening to F&no. May the time

pome,

Signora,

when

ire

may meet

uml'T happier ciroum " Addio, Signor Caporale " to you for much kindness

hex

>ora

I

!

am

" !

grateful

!

" said the CorFarewell, Signora Giulia the kitchen. of in the act leaving poral, "Oh, Signor Caporale!" said Giulia, sud-

"

!

"

will anything very denly calling after him bad be done to Beppo for going away?" " They don't want to be severe Oh, no.

with the men. They know, between ourselves, Signora," he continued, dropping his voice as he spoke, with the true Italian feeling that he was approaching a dangerous subject, " they

know

that

it is

the priests that are really to

blame more than the poor fellows who take to the hills. Only No, they won't do much. let him buckle-to with a good will, and make a good soldier, and all will soon be forgotten, and he will be made a corporal in no time. And you won't like him any the worse when he comes back a smart soldier, Signora Giulia," said the Corporal, with a somewhat rueful smile

" I shall tell him that, Signora Good-bye " No, no, you must not tell him that

"

—

!

!

at

not from me " said Giulia, very eagerly And it but the Corporal was already gone. may be doubted whether she was very anxious to prevent the little man from using any means that such a consideration might supply towards least

reconciling

!

Beppo



to his fate,

—

if it

must

in-

deed come to be his fate. But there were yet two nights and two days before that fate was to be consummated in the manner Corporal Tenda and his men contemIt was a Friday on which the above plated. conversation had taken place. There was, the Friday night, all the day of Saturday, the Saturday night, and the whole of the day on Sunday, before the time fixed for his coming to the tryste at the old tower. And during all this time Giulia had to meditate upon the coming catastrophe It was in vain that she persuaded herself of the truth of the Corporal's representation, that to be

therefore,

!

223

of the feeling with which Beppo, like the army. i

all his

Then

again, she put very little faith in the good result of any of those promised representations of the Corporal, to t! hat the capture

was effected by no fault or participation <-;' She knew well whaon the subject would be. She was too well aware how all that he had Men in Fano would

hers.

appear to his mind to be confirmation as

Holy Writ

of

all

his

d

pictured to herself the bitter scorn with which he would listen to assurances which, to him,

would have the effect of hi her and her lover, for the purpose of She saw blinding and making a fool of him. but too clearly how the circumstances of the matter must appear to him, how they would carry with them all the weight and authority
 * i

of indubitable

facts,

while

the

explanations

which were to follow them would come halting after with the weakness of mere excuses. And bearing in mind, too, Beppo's natural feeling towards the person who was to be the bearer of those excuses, she dared not flatter herself In short, that any good could come of them.

by the time she had spent most part of the

—

—

in the Friday night, that is ensuing night meditating on the matter in the silence of the night hours, the result was, that any good effect which the representations of the Corporal might have had on her mind at the moment

was altogether

obliterated.

And

during the whole of that day, the Saturday, the hourly drawing near of the consummation which was for evermore to brand her as false beyond all precedent falseness infamous beyond all imagined infamy, was never for a moment absent from her mind. But by the time the Ave Maria had come, she had determined on a course of action. It was very doubtful whether the effort she purposed making would be of any avail but at least, her intention involved self-sacrifice and action, with however desperate a hope,

—





was preferable to hopeless agonised waiting

in

inaction for the catastrophe.

The night came. The farmer and Carlo came home to their supper but there were

captured and taken off by force to serve his time in the army was all for his advantage. Giulia, if not altogether imbued herself with the genuine coutadino horror for the service, for her views and feelings had been a good deal modified and enlarged in this respect by her residence in the city, and by her associa-

only three of the soldiers to sup with them. Giulia had not seen the Corporal since her conversation with him in the morning. And now he and one of the men were absent at the But there was nothing unusual supper- time. in this. Two, or more, of the party were often absent, sometimes all night, patrolling the

tion there with military men, and by the conversations which she had sometimes taken part in, but had oftoner listened to ; nevertheless,

in obedience to information furnished

was quite contadina enough to be well aware

in

—

—

neighbourhood, or marching hither and thither

them

—

in all probability intentionally false information

the majority of cases—of the whereabout of