Page:Idalia, by 'Ouida' volume 2.djvu/252

Rh "Arrested her?" He staggered against the brown timbers of a boat resting on the sands, and clenched them hard to keep himself from reeling like a drunken man. For the moment, old usage in many countries gave the word no meaning on his ear save in its criminal sense.

"So they say, Signore," answered the sailor, while his strong teeth set. "If I had been there, they should not have touched the hem of her skirts! It was done at the Villa Antina, in the interior; the soldiers shot many, I've been told." "Many! Who?"

"Conspirators, Signore—so they say," replied the Capriote, who scarcely knew the meaning of the phrase, and thought the world governed to perfection if it proved a good fishing-season, and many visitors came to the coast. "Some tell that his Highness of Viana was killed. I don't know about that; but Miladi Idalia is a prisoner of the King's." With an oath, mighty as ever rang over the marches from the fierce lips of Bothwell, Erceldoune strode from him well-nigh ere the words were ended, and plunged down into the thicket of vegetation that led to the beetling cliff on which her