Page:In Maremma, by Ouida (vol 1).djvu/231

 memories with the old forgotten cry of Saturnino.

She rowed on, and in somewhat less than two hours she saw the low, grey line of the stone piers of the little harbour, and the masts of the few old useless boats that were left at home, and the round white towers of the soldiery and coastguard. All was quite quiet.

She steered herself carefully within the shallow water, and fastened the boat to the ring. Where the moonlight is so brilliant the shadows are proportionately black. She could keep out of sight in these shadows, and did so, for she heard voices and a sort of stir in the narrow lanes that parted the houses one from another. Some people were awake loitering languidly on the stones, or hanging from the open windows. The passage of the mounted carabineers through the town had roused them, but only roused them slightly. To men and women shaking with ague, feeble with fever, ill always through brain and bone with the deadly air, it mattered very little whether the law had its nights or not.

For the most part they would have hindered the law rather than have helped