Page:The Count of Monte-Cristo (1887 Volume 2).djvu/121

Rh where he was, a traveler on horseback, who stopped a moment, as if uncertain of his road, and thus presented against the blue sky that sharp outline peculiar to the distances of southern climes. When he saw Luigi, he put his horse into a gallop and advanced toward him.

"Luigi was not mistaken. The traveler, who was going from Palestrina to Tivoli, had lost his way. The young man directed him; but as at a quarter of a mile distance the road again divided into three ways, and on reaching these the traveler might again stray from his route, he begged Luigi to be his guide.

"Luigi threw his cloak on the ground, placed his carbine on his shoulder, and freed from his heavy covering, preceded the traveler with the rapid step of a moutaineer, which a horse can scarcely keep up with, in ten minutes Luigi and the traveler reached the cross-roads mentioned by the young shepherd. On arriving there, with an air as majestic as that of an emperor, he stretched his hand toward that one of the roads which the traveler was to follow.

"'That is your road, excellency, and now you cannot again mistake.'

"'And here is your recompense,' said the traveler, offering the young herdsman some pieces of small money.

"'Thank you,' said Luigi, drawing back his hand; 'I render a service, I do not sell it.'

"'Well,' replied the traveler, who seemed used to this difference between the servility of a man of the cities and the pride of a mountaineer, 'if you refuse pay, you will, perhaps, accept of a present.'

"'Ah, yes, that is another thing.'

"'Then,' said the traveler, 'take these two Venice sequins and give them to your bride, to make herself a pair of ear-rings.'

"'And then do you take this poniard,' said the young herdsman; 'you will not find one with a handle better carved between Albana and Civita-Castellana.'

"'I accept it,' answered the traveler; 'but then the obligation will be on my side, for this poniard is worth more than two sequins.'

"'For a dealer, perhaps; but for me, who engraved it myself, it is hardly worth a piastre.'

"'What is your name?' inquired the traveler.

"'Luigi Vampa,' replied the shepherd, with the same air as he would have replied, Alexander, King of Macedon. 'And yours?'

"'I,' said the traveler, 'am called Sindbad the Sailor.'"

Franz d'Epinay started with surprise.—"Sindbad the Sailor?" he said.

"Yes," replied the narrator; "that was the name which the traveler gave to Vampa as his own."