s you will be right welcome."

Alleyne promised to be there if his duties would allow, and then,
slipping through the crowd, he rejoined Ford, who was standing in talk
with the two strangers, who had now reached their own doorstep.

"Brave young signor," cried the tall man, throwing his arms round
Alleyne, "how can we thank you enough for taking our parts against those
horrible drunken barbarians. What should we have done without you? My
Tita would have been dragged away, and my head would have been shivered
into a thousand fragments."

"Nay, I scarce think that they would have mishandled you so," said
Alleyne in surprise.

"Ho, ho!" cried he with a high crowing laugh, "it is not the head upon
my shoulders that I think of. Cospetto! no. It is the head under my arm
which you have preserved."

"Perhaps the signori would deign to come under our roof, father," said
the maiden. "If we bide here, who knows that some fresh tumult may not
break out."

"Well said, Tita! Well said, my girl! I pray you, sirs, to honor my
unworthy roof so far. A light, Giacomo! There are five steps up. Now
two more. So! Here we are at last in safety. Corpo di Bacco! I would
not have given ten maravedi for my head when those children of the devil
were pushing us against the wall. Tita mia, you have been a brave girl,
and it was better that you should be pulled and pushed than that my head
should be broken."

"Yes indeed, father," said she earnestly.

"But those English! Ach! Take a Goth, a Hun, and a Vandal, mix them
together and add a Barbary rover; then take this creature and make him
drunk--and you have an Englishman. My God I were ever such people upon
earth! What place is free from them? I hear that they swarm in Italy
even as they swarm here. Everywhere you will find them, except in
heaven."

"Dear father," cried Tita, still supporting the angry old man, as he
limped up the curved oaken stair. "You must not forget that these good
signori who have preserved us are also English."

"Ah, yes. My pardon, sirs! Come into my rooms here. There are some who
might find some pleasure in these paintings, but I learn the art of war
is the only art which is held in honor in your island."

The low-roofed, oak-panelled room into which he conducted them was
brilliantly lit by four scented oil lamps. Against the walls, upon the
table, on the floor, and in every part of the chamber were great sheets
of glass painted in the most brilliant colors. Fo