pon him. Rapidly advancing, he seized the bridle of his horse,
and thus addressed him:--"Barozzo! the measure of thy crimes is full,
and retribution is at hand! Colonna the painter is no more, but the
son of Montalto has escaped thy dagger, and demands atonement for his
father's blood. Dismount, assassin! and defend thy worthless life!"

The deep and startling grandeur of Colonna's voice, and the implacable
hostility which flashed from his fierce eyeballs, shook the firm
sinews of the guilty governor, and again his swarthy lineaments were
blanched with terror. By a sudden and powerful effort, however, he
regained self-mastery, and gathering into his grim features all the
pride and insolence of his soul, he darted upon his youthful enemy a
sneer of contempt. "Presuming vagrant!" he shouted, in accents hoarse
with wrath, "dare to impede my progress, and my retinue, which is at
hand, shall scatter thy limbs on the highway!"

Still firmly grasping the bridle, Colonna eyed him for a moment with
quiet scorn, and then he smiled--briefly indeed, but with a stinging
mockery, a hot and withering scorn of eye and lip, that seared the
haughty chieftain to the brain. Writhing with sudden frenzy, he
spurred his mettled charger, and endeavoured to ride down his
opponent; but the generous animal, true to the instincts of a nature
nobler than his master's, refused to advance, and plunged and
demi-volted with a violence which would have unseated a less
experienced rider. At this moment, the heavy trampling of approaching
horses rolled in doubling echoes through the ravine. Encouraged by the
welcome sound, Barozzo attempted to draw his sword, but before the
plunging of his horse would allow him to reach the hilt, the vigilant
Colonna smote him on the cheek with his sheathed weapon. Then
relinquishing the bridle, and stepping lightly sideways, he struck the
horse's flank, and the startled animal, straining every sinew, bounded
away like a ball, and quickly disappeared round the second angle of
the cliff, followed by the loud laugh of the exulting Colonna, whose
fierce ha! ha! re-echoed through the rocky hollow like a trumpet-call.
Meanwhile the Greeks, who had turned the first angle in time to behold
the termination of the struggle, drew their sabres, and pushing their
horses into a gallop, rushed down upon us like infuriated tigers.
Anticipating their attack, I was not unprepared to aid my gallant
friend in this emergency; but all assist