such as you have proved yourself
to be, do not kill women; though your traducers say you do, do not
give them cause to speak truth. I will be responsible for this woman's
safety. Here, to make it sure you had better strap us together." I
piqued myself exceedingly on this happy inspiration, whereby I secured
an arm-in-arm walk, of a peculiar kind, it is true, with Valeria; and
indeed my readiness to sacrifice myself seemed rather to astonish the
soldier, who hesitated. However, his comrade, whose horse had been shot
in the ditch, now came up, and seconded my proposal as I offered him a
mount on mine.

"How on earth am I to let you escape, dear Valeria?" I whispered, giving
her a sort of affectionate nudge; the position of our arms prevented my
squeezing hers as I could have wished, and the two troopers kept behind
us, watching us, I thought, suspiciously.

"It is quite impossible now--don't attempt it," she answered; "perhaps
there may be an opportunity later."

"Was that Croppo who got away?" I asked.

"Yes. He could not get his cowardly men to stand on that hill."

"What a bother those men are behind, dearest! Let me pretend to scratch
my nose with this hand that is tied to yours, which I can thus bring to
my lips."

I accomplished this manoeuvre rather neatly, but parties now came
straggling in from other directions, and I was obliged to give up
whispering and become circumspect. They all seemed rather astonished
at our group, and the captain laughed heartily as he rode up and called
out, "Who have you got tied to you there, _caro mio_?"

"Croppo's wife. I had her tied to me for fear she should escape;
besides, she is not bad-looking."

"What a prize!" he exclaimed. "We have made a tolerable haul this
time--twenty prisoners in all, among them the priest of the band. Our
colonel has just arrived, so I am in luck; he will be delighted. See the
prisoners are being brought up to him now; but you had better remount
and present yours in a less singular fashion."

When we reached the colonel we found him examining the priest. His
breviary contained various interesting notes written on some of the
fly-leaves.

For instance:

"Administered extreme unction to A----, shot by Croppo's order; my share
ten scudi.

"Ditto, ditto, to R----, hung by Croppo's order, my share two scudi.

"Ditto, ditto, to S----, roasted by Croppo's order to make him name
an agent to bring his ransom; overdone by mistake, and died, so go