e sent three men."

"You had done better to send thirty; but even so you will not
succeed."

"I have heard tell," she said, again with a little movement of her
shoulders, "that all Englishmen are mad."

I laughed; and this laugh of mine had a singular effect on her.
She drew back and looked at me for an instant with startled eyes, as
though she had never heard laughter in her life before, or else had
heard too much.

"Tell me what you propose," she said.

"I propose to send down a message to my father, and one of your men
shall carry it with a white flag (for that he shall have the loan of
my handkerchief). I will write in Italian, that you may read and
know what I say."

"It is unnecessary."

"I thank you." I found in my pockets the stump of a pencil and a
scrap of paper--an old Oxford bill--and wrote--

"DEAR FATHER,

"We are prisoners, and Nat is wounded, but whether past help or
not I cannot say. I believe you might do something for him.
If it suit your plans, the bearer will give you safe conduct:
if not, I remain your obedient son,"
"PROSPER."

I translated this for her, and folded the paper.

"Marc'antonio!" she called to one of the three men, who by this time
had finished plaiting the litter and were strewing it with fern.

Marc'antonio--a lean, slight fellow with an old scar on his cheek--
stepped forward at once. She gave him my note and handkerchief with
instructions to hurry.

"Excuse me, principessa"--he hesitated, with a glance at me and
another at his comrades--"but these two, with the litter, will have
their hands full; and this prisoner is a strong one and artful.
Has he not already slain 'l Verru?"

"You will mind your own business, Marc'antonio, which is to run, as I
tell you."

The man turned without another word, but with a last distrustful
look, and plunged downhill into the scrub. The girl made a careless
sign to the others to lay Nat on his litter, and, turning, led the
way up the rocky front of the summit, presenting her back to me,
choosing the path which offered fewest impediments to the
litter-bearers in our rear.

The sun was now high overhead, and beat torridly upon the granite
crags, which, as I clutched them, blistered my hands. The girl and
the two men (in spite of their burden) balanced themselves and sprang
from foothold to foothold with an ease which shamed me. For a while
I sup