's hut, where they were welcomed
by an old man and a little girl, who gave them milk and black bread, and
straw to rest on. Angelo slept in the outer air. When Vittoria awoke she
had the fancy that she had taken one long dive downward in a well; and on
touching the bottom found her head above the surface. While her surprise
was wearing off, she beheld the woodman's little girl at her feet holding
up one end of her cloak, and peeping underneath, overcome by amazement at
the flashing richness of the dress of the heroine Camilla. Entering into
the state of her mind spontaneously, Vittoria sought to induce the child
to kiss her; but quite vainly. The child's reverence for the dress
allowed her only to be within reach of the hem of it, so as to delight
her curiosity. Vittoria smiled when, as she sat up, the child fell back
against the wall; and as she rose to her feet, the child scampered from
the room. 'My poor Camilla! you can charm somebody, yet,' she said,
limping; her visage like a broken water with the pain of her feet. 'If
the bell rings for Camilla now, what sort of an entry will she make?'
Vittoria treated her physical weakness and ailments with this spirit of
humour. 'They may say that Michiella has bewitched you, my Camilla. I
think your voice would sound as if it were dragging its feet after it
just as a stork flies. O my Camilla! don't I wish I could do the same,
and be ungraceful and at ease! A moan is married to every note of your
treble, my Camilla, like December and May. Keep me from shrieking!'

The pangs shooting from her feet were scarce bearable, but the repression
of them helped her to meet Angelo with a freer mind than, after the
interval of separation, she would have had. The old woodman was cooking a
queer composition of flour and milk sprinkled with salt for them. Angelo
cut a stout cloth to encase each of her feet, and bound them in it. He
was more cheerful than she had ever seen him, and now first spoke of
their destination. His design was to conduct her near to Bormio, there to
engage a couple of men in her service who would accompany her to Meran,
by the Val di Sole, while he crossed the Stelvio alone, and turning
leftward in the Tyrolese valley, tried the passage into Switzerland.

Bormio, if, when they quitted the forest, a conveyance could be obtained,
was no more than a short day's distance, according to the old woodman's
directions. Vittoria induced the little girl to sit upon her knee, and