Page:In Maremma, by Ouida (vol 1).djvu/40

 'Lift your wine to my mouth,' he said. 'I will drink it now.'

And he drank.

'Loosen the image from my hat. She has the same about her throat; her mother hung them both. I have your Madonnina still at mine,' he muttered, when he had drained the cup.

She put one foot on the stirrup, for she was strong and active, though old; loosened the golden image, and detached it from its place. At that moment the officer in charge of the escort, arriving in haste, reproved his men in fury, and the horses started so suddenly that she could scarcely save herself from falling between their legs and being trampled to pieces on the stones.

By good fortune she escaped injury, and only fell on her knees, and rose again unhurt. The troop of carabiniers were trotting out of the square, their carbines pointed at the head of Saturnino.

They soon vanished in the golden haze of the rising sun.

A hundred hands were stretched to touch her; a hundred questions rained on her ear.

'What did Saturnino tell you, mother?' cried the Grosseto folk jealously, for they