realizing my own position, and shrank instinctively from looking forward
a single day into the future, when I now found myself starting, in
company with "Mad Monkton," to hunt for the body of a dead duelist all
along the frontier line of the Roman States!

CHAPTER V.

I HAD settled it in my own mind that we had better make the town of
Fondi, close on the frontier, our headquarters, to begin with, and I
had arranged, with the assistance of the embassy, that the leaden coffin
should follow us so far, securely nailed up in its packing-case. Besides
our passports, we were well furnished with letters of introduction to
the local authorities at most of the important frontier towns, and, to
crown all, we had money enough at our command (thanks to Monkton's
vast fortune) to make sure of the services of any one whom we wanted to
assist us all along our line of search. These various resources insured
us every facility for action, provided always that we succeeded in
discovering the body of the dead duelist. But, in the very probable
event of our failing to do this, our future prospects--more especially
after the responsibility I had undertaken--were of anything but an
agreeable nature to contemplate. I confess I felt uneasy, almost
hopeless, as we posted, in the dazzling Italian sunshine, along the road
to Fondi.

We made an easy two days' journey of it; for I had insisted, on
Monkton's account, that we should travel slowly.

On the first day the excessive agitation of my companion a little
alarmed me; he showed, in many ways, more symptoms of a disordered mind
than I had yet observed in him. On the second day, however, he seemed to
get accustomed to contemplate calmly the new idea of the search on which
we were bent, and, except on one point, he was cheerful and composed
enough. Whenever his dead uncle formed the subject of conversation,
he still persisted--on the strength of the old prophecy, and under the
influence of the apparition which he saw, or thought he saw always--in
asserting that the corpse of Stephen Monkton, wherever it was, lay
yet unburied. On every other topic he deferred to me with the utmost
readiness and docility; on this he maintained his strange opinion with
an obstinacy which set reason and persuasion alike at defiance.

On the third day we rested at Fondi. The packing-case, with the coffin
in it, reached us, and was deposited in a safe place under lock and
key. We engaged some mules, and found