, and was wafted
slowly along toward the sea.

'Just as if I had conjured them up,' cried Gerald, 'there are the
gypsies; and if there be a Strega in the company, she shall have this
crown for telling me my fortune! What marvels will she not invent for
this broad piece--what dragons shall I not slay--what princesses not
marry; not but in reality they do possess some wondrous insight into the
future! Signor Gabriel sneered at it, as he sneered at everything-; but
there's no denying they read destiny, as the sailor reads the coming
storm in signs unseen by others. There is something fine, too, in their
clanship; how, poor and houseless, despised as they are, they cling
together, hoarding up their ancient rites and traditions--their only
wealth--and wandering through the world, pilgrims of centuries old.'

As he descended the mountain path he continued thus to exalt the gypsies
in his estimation, and with that unfailing resource in similar cases,
that what he was unable to praise he at least found picturesque. The
path led through a wood of stunted chestnut-trees, on issuing from whose
shade he could no longer detect the spot he was in search of; the fire
had gone out, and the smoke ceased to linger over the place.

'Doubtless the encampment has broken up; they are trudging along toward
the coast, where the villages lie,' thought he, 'and I may come up with
them to-morrow or next day,' and he stepped out briskly on his way.

The day was intensely hot, and Gerald would gladly have availed himself
of any shade, to lie down and enjoy the 'siesta' hours in true Italian
fashion. The only spot, however, he could procure likely to offer such
shelter was a little copse of olives, at a bend of the river, about a
mile away. A solitary rock, with a few ruined walls upon it, rose above
the trees, and marked the place as one once inhabited. Following the
winding of the stream, he at length drew nigh, and quickly noticed that
the grass was greener and deeper, with here and there a daffodil or a
wild-flower, signs of a soil which, in some past time, had been cared
for and cultivated. The river, too, as it swept around the base of the
rock, deepened into a clear, calm pool, the very sight of which was
intensely grateful and refreshing. As the youth stood in admiring
contemplation of this fair bath, and inwardly vowing to himself the
luxury of a plunge into it, a low rustling noise startled him, and a
sound like the sharp stamp of a bea