t
nothing.

"Ditto, ditto, to P----, executed by the knife by Croppo's order for
disobedience.

"M---- and F---- and D----, three new members, joined to-day; confessed
them, and received the usual fees."

He was a dark, beetle-browed-looking ruffian, this holy man; and the
colonel, when he had finished examining his book of prayer and crime,
tossed it to me, saying, "There! that will show your friends in England
the kind of politicians we make war against. Ha! what have we here?
This is more serious." And he unfolded a piece of paper which had been
concealed in the breast of the priest. "This contains a little valuable
information," he added, with a grim smile. "Nobody like priests and
women for carrying about political secrets, so you may have made a
valuable capture," and he turned to where I stood with Valeria; "let her
be carefully searched."

Now the colonel was a very pompous man, and the document he had just
discovered on the priest added to his sense of self-importance. When,
therefore, a large, carefully folded paper was produced from the
neighbourhood of Valeria's lovely bosom his eyes sparkled with
admiration. "Ho, ho!" he exclaimed, as he clutched it eagerly, "the plot
is thickening!" And he spread out triumphantly, before he had himself
seen what it was, the exquisitely drawn portrait of a donkey. There was
a suppressed titter, which exploded into a shout when the bystanders
looked into the colonel's indignant face. I only was affected
differently as my gaze fell upon this touching evidence of dear
Valeria's love for me, and I glanced at her tenderly. "This has a
deeper significance than you think for," said the colonel, looking round
angrily. "Croppo's wife does not carefully secrete a drawing like that
on her person for nothing. See, it is done by no common artist. It means
something, and must be preserved."

"It may have a biblical reference to the state of Italy. You remember
Issachar was likened to an ass between two burdens. In that case it
probably emanated from Rome," I remarked; but nobody seemed to see the
point of the allusion, and the observation fell flat.

That night I dined with the colonel, and after dinner I persuaded him to
let me visit Valeria in prison, as I wished to take the portrait of the
wife of the celebrated brigand chief. I thanked my stars that my friend
who had seen her when we met in the glen was away on duty with his
detachment and could not testify to our former acqu