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Rh as jealous of each other's claims as near neighbours usually are. While he was deliberating whether he should ride over to the Mandevilles or not, a man, a stranger—though by this time he was well acquainted with most of the peasants—came up and spoke to him. This is not so impertinent in an Italian as it is in an Englishman—or it is not thought so, which amounts to the same thing. Cecil, therefore, civilly replied to his question, which was one almost as general as the weather, viz. the time. Still the man lingered, and at last said, "The Signor Inglesi does not seem a cavalier that would leave his own countrywomen in trouble without helping them." "Why, that must very much depend on the nature of the distress." No Englishman was ever yet so young, or so adventurous, as not to give one first thought to the imposition which he always expects—and for which he is, notwithstanding, never prepared. To make the shortest of the story, as mysteries are of no use now-a-days—from long habit, every reader always foreseeing their end—this man was one of Giulio's companions. Francisco had assisted in the abduction of Lady Mandeville and Miss Arundel, and was now on