ages, a
willing girl. We ride up to the mountains; to-morrow we cross the pass;
there is a glacier. Val di Non sounds Italian, but I am going into the
enemy's land. You see I am well guarded. My immediate anxiety concerns
you; for what will our Carlo ask of me? Lose not one moment. Away, and do
not detain Lorenzo. He has orders to meet us up high in the mountain this
evening. He is the best of servants but I always meet the best
everywhere--that is, in Italy. Leaving it, I grieve. No news from Milan,
except of great confusion there. I judge by the quiet of my sleep that we
have come to no harm there.

'Your faithfullest

'VITTORIA.'

Lorenzo and the innkeeper had arrived at an altercation before Angelo
finished reading. Angelo checked it, and told Lorenzo to make speed: he
sent no message.

'My humanity,' Angelo then addressed his craven associate, 'counsels me
that it's better to drag you some distance on than to kill you. You 're a
man of intelligence, and you know why I have to consider the matter. I
give you guide's pay up to the glacier, and ten florins buon'mano. Would
you rather earn it with the blood of a countryman? I can't let that
tongue of yours be on the high-road of running Tedeschi: you know it.

'Illustrious signore, obedience oils necessity,' quoth the innkeeper. 'If
we had but a few more of my cigars!'

'Step on,' said Angelo sternly.

They walked till dark and they were in keen air. A hut full of recent
grass-cuttings, on the border of a sloping wood, sheltered them. The
innkeeper moaned for food at night and in the morning, and Angelo tossed
him pieces of bread. Beyond the wood they came upon bare crag and
commenced a sharper ascent, reached the height, and roused an eagle. The
great bird went up with a sharp yelp, hanging over them with knotted
claws. Its shadow stretched across sweeps of fresh snow. The innkeeper
sent a mocking yelp after the eagle.

'Up here, one forgets one is a father--what's more, a husband,' he said,
striking a finger on the side of his nose.

'And a cur, a traitor, carrion,' said Angelo.

'Ah, signore, one might know you were a noble. You can't understand our
troubles, who carry a house on our heads, and have to fill mouths agape.'

'Speak when you have better to say,' Angelo replied.

'Padrone, one would really like to have your good opinion; and I'm lean
as a wolf for a morsel of flesh. I could part with my buon'mano for a