Page:In Maremma, by Ouida (vol 1).djvu/64

 deserted, it seemed to her; for there were things strewn about them, and here and there pools of blood, and broken arms upon the frozen snow. She could have guessed how it had been, even had she known nothing of the capture of Saturnmo; guessed that there had been a struggle here, and the women had left in hurried flight.

'How shall I find his lamb?' she thought, with a sigh half of regret, half of relief; and she stood still and looked.

The few people who had dwelt there had fled, that was plain to her; most likely out of fear of the soldiery.

'Poor souls!' she said, and crossed herself, seeing the scarcely dried blood on the stones.

A dog's bark startled her.

It was a bark of anger and of appeal both in one. She rose and went in the direction of the sound. It came from the last of the stone huts. She pushed open the door as she had done that of the other. A great dog, snow-white, stood in the centre of the clay floor; under his body was a child asleep.

'The child of Serapia!' she thought, as she looked down on the sleeping infant.