Page:Romance & Reality 3.pdf/263

Rh "And how are you to account for finding out the door? and how are you to get back? I must try some better plan. Stay you here—I shall be back in half an hour. You could not have a better pledge for my return than this"—placing on the ground a bag, which, both from its weight and sound, seemed filled with metal substances. "Pray to every saint you can think of, that the wind does not rise while I am gone." Before they could answer, he had disappeared among the trees. The half hour passed in the most intolerable anxiety. Every rustle in the leaves sounded like the beginning of a breeze; the slightest movement of any of the party filled the others with alarm; and Emily sat on a fallen branch and wept bitterly. At length a rapid footstep was heard: it was Giulio. "I have procured other habits. You must dress as quickly as possible. Let the tree hide the light on one side, my cloak will do it on the other." So saying he laid a packet on the ground, and struck a light; while the cloak, which hung on the boughs, served at once for a screen to the light and themselves. All the colours of the rainbow seemed in