nitting of her brows a sort of
presentiment; perhaps she foresaw her fate. Rosina remained quietly in
her place.

"A minute later, and apparently when the Colonel was snug in his couch
of straw or hay, he repeated, 'Rosina?'

"The tone of this second call was even more brutally questioning than
the first. The Colonel's strong burr, and the length which the
Italian language allows to be given to vowels and the final syllable,
concentrated all the man's despotism, impatience, and strength of will.
Rosina turned pale, but she rose, passed behind us, and went to the
Colonel.

"All the party sat in utter silence; I, unluckily, after looking at them
all, began to laugh, and then they all laughed too.--'_Tu ridi?_--you
laugh?' said the husband.

"'On my honor, old comrade,' said I, becoming serious again, 'I confess
that I was wrong; I ask your pardon a thousand times, and if you are not
satisfied by my apologies I am ready to give you satisfaction.'

"'Oh! it is not you who are wrong, it is I!' he replied coldly.

"Thereupon we all lay down in the room, and before long all were sound
asleep.

"Next morning each one, without rousing his neighbor or seeking
companionship, set out again on his way, with that selfishness
which made our rout one of the most horrible dramas of self-seeking,
melancholy, and horror which ever was enacted under heaven.
Nevertheless, at about seven or eight hundred paces from our shelter we,
most of us, met again and walked on together, like geese led in flocks
by a child's wilful tyranny. The same necessity urged us all.

"Having reached a knoll where we could still see the farmhouse where we
had spent the night, we heard sounds resembling the roar of lions in the
desert, the bellowing of bulls--no, it was a noise which can be compared
to no known cry. And yet, mingling with this horrible and ominous roar,
we could hear a woman's feeble scream. We all looked round, seized by I
know not what impulse of terror; we no longer saw the house, but a huge
bonfire. The farmhouse had been barricaded, and was in flames. Swirls
of smoke borne on the wind brought us hoarse cries and an indescribable
pungent smell. A few yards behind, the captain was quietly approaching
to join our caravan; we gazed at him in silence, for no one dared
question him; but he, understanding our curiosity, pointed to his breast
with the forefinger of his right hand, and, waving the left in the
direction of the fire, he said, '