peaking. The consequence was, that the landlord's words had
no effect.

He then entered the hotel once more, and after seeing the driver,
and speaking a few words, he hurried up to our party, who by this
time were in a state of general alarm.

"You must run--fly--leaf Sorrento--now--widout delay," he
cried, breathlessly. "I haf order de carriage. I sall tell de
people dat you sall be arrest, an pacify dem for a few moments,
till you get start."

The landlord once more left them, and going out to the crowd, he
made a few remarks, to the effect that the hotel was being searched
now for the offender against the Bambino, and when he was found he
would at once be handed over to the authorities. He urged them to
wait patiently, and they should see that justice would be done.

The crowd now grew calmer, and waited. The landlord then went back,
and led the party down to the court-yard. Here the carriage was
all in readiness, and the driver was waiting. They all got in at
once, unseen by the crowd in the street; and then, cracking his
whip, the driver urged the horses off at full speed through the
gates. The crowd fell back on either side, so as to make away, and
were not in a position to offer any obstacles to so sudden an onset.
They also had the idea that the culprit was inside the hotel, in
the hands of the authorities.

But the old woman was not to be deceived; she saw it all in a
moment, and in a moment she raised the alarm. Having, howling,
gesticulating wildly, dancing, and jumping, she sprang after the
carriage. The crowd followed. But the carriage had already got a
good start; it had burst through the people, and those who stood
in the way were only too glad to get out of it, and thus, with the
horses at full speed, they dashed up the street; and before long
they had left Sorrento, and the hotel, and the insulted Bambino,
and the excited crowd, and the raving old beldam far behind.

David's adventure in Sorrento had been a peculiar one, and one,
too, which was not without danger; but if there was any satisfaction
to be got out of it, it was in the fact that the tassel which he
had acquired, remained still in his possession, to be added to his
little stock of relics.

CHAPTER IV.

_Salerno and the sulky Driver.--Paestum and its Temples.--A great
Sensation.--An unpleasant Predicament.--Is the Driver a Traitor?--Is
he in League with Bandits?--Arguments about the Situation, and
what each thought about it.