ould understand a word of English, he would not
speak to me until he had led me into a deep pine wood at the back of the
house, and on the first slope of the mountain, and even there he went
peering about and beating the bushes and undergrowth with a stick, as
if he had been a stage-spy, until I lost temper with him, and shouted to
him to begin. He came and sat mysteriously at my side.

"You see," he said, "how I stand with Breschia. I can have the run of
the fortress at any time, and so, if you play your cards properly, can
you."

"Was there any need," I asked, ill-humoredly, "to bring me here to say
that?" I admit that I was in a quite unreasonable temper, and that an
angel would have been tempted to quarrel with me. I called Bru-now "a
melodramatic ass" I remember very well, and I told him that if we fell
into a habit of getting in the corners to conspire we should only
draw suspicion upon ourselves. I spoke with a roughness altogether
unnecessary, but then it must be remembered that Brunow, whom I was fast
learning to dislike and despise, bade so far to be of more service than
myself, and it is always bitter to be beaten by an inferior. I stung
him, and he replied angrily, and the result of it was that we separated
for the day. I went uphill, and by-and-by lost myself and came quite
unexpectedly upon a highway, from which I could look down upon the
fortress. Being assured by this that I could not easily lose myself
again, I walked for a considerable distance, until from the top of a
hill I could look down the straight road into a broad and fertile plain,
with a city far and far away shining on the limit of it.

"This," I said, "is the road we shall have to travel if ever we get the
Conte di Rossano out of prison."

And following the mental road pointed out by this finger-post of
thought, I sat down and allowed my fancy to carry me into all manner of
worthless and impracticable plans of rescue in which I could dispense
with Brunow's aid. I was engaged in this unprofitable exercise, when
I suddenly discerned a carriage near the hill-top. It came on with
difficulty, and the two horses that drew it were dead blown when they
reached the level, and stood trembling with their late exertion. A
strikingly handsome woman put her head round the front of the carriage
as if to look at the road before her. Catching sight of me she smiled
and addressed me in the language of the country. I responded in French,
and in that tongu