Page:010 Once a week Volume X Dec 1863 to Jun 64.pdf/232

 ONCE A WEEK. some one or other of the contumacious conscripts.

oon as the sup;

cr,

the soldiers

room by and very soon afternily went also to went to hers, and bolted the door of it as soon as she had after making one or two small in the

i

the

hi

.

changes in hev

curing id,

a

small

which she had previously iu a handkerchief, knotted

the purpose of a wallet, she

indow, and after straining her ight to see, and her ears to hear iet, she placed a chair by.

stepp-

the side of the window-sill, and by

its

help

and unhesitating foot on which, a few minutes before supper, she had secretly carried round to the back of the house, on which the window of her room rith a light

I

opened.

The

[Feb.

But Giulia's calculation was, that she should not be obliged to go all the way to the place He was to be at the old of Beppo's retreat. tower at the back of the churchyard a couple of hours after the Ave Maria on the Sunday about twenty hours, that is to say, evening, or a little more, from the time of her departure from Bella Luce. She hoped, therefore, that at the end of about ten hours' walk, early on the Sunday morning, she should meet him on

—

so give him ample warning of Then, indeed, she would urge on him all that the Corporal had said and, if possible, induce him to surrender himself voluntarily to the authorities at Fano. The Corporal himself had said that that would be the best his road,

and

his danger.



thing for him of

all.

It never entered, it will be observed, into Giulia's calculations, that a person coming

from Piobico to Santa Lucia might travel by Poor any other route than by the high road Giulia She had always heard all her life that when people wanted to go to any place, they went along the road till they came to it, and no other possible course of proceeding presented itself to her imagination. She purposed which was going through the Pass of Furlo, !

!

time she had secretly left the house u spied, in consequence of y to the kitchen-door by the door of

last

hamber

in

which the

soldiers

were sleep-

This time she was determined to avoid

—

the part of the road that she best remembered,

that

She descended the ladder swiftly and surely and on reaching height was not great ; she started, without losing a id, moment in any further listenings, on the path whieh led to the village. t was the purpose of her night-tide It was simply to undo expedition this time 1 def she had so unwillingly done, by

ipo from coming to the trystingture awaited him. It was but

—



ig

able to effect

•thing of the locality he was hiding. 'She had •ml of Santa Maria

But the messenger had It was possi>bico. rould be coming from '

i

had a general idea of.

BO del I

she had once

new the

— very

naturally,

ttd

then she

any a mile, by the

I

for it is a

very remarkable

But we know that the

place.

especially cautioned

occasion

by that route

had

priest

to pass on

Beppo not

any

!

Giulia sped along the path to the village, with her wallet of bread slung behind her a precaution which was rendered shoulders, necessary by her absolute lack of money, the entirety of her moneyed possessions having been, as we saw, expended on the messenger who had brought the letter that had caused

—

so

much

trouble.

She sped along the path, reached the village, where all the population had gone to bed two hours or more ago, reached the cura } at the windows of which she glanced suspiciously reached the but there was no light in them church and the churchyard behind it and the foot of the old ruined tower by which the road passed that was to take her down through one or two other villages into the valley of the

—



—



—





Metauro.

She had looked at the mra suspiciously she passed but she cast no glai; doubt or misgiving on the old half-ruined

as



brick tower. Nobody lived in that save the owls up in the ivy that clustered around its top. "less,

which

no<

13, 1864.

I

there were two shrewd to

ivy at her as she passed. (To

i

no such biped, looking out be c niinxitd.)