the deduction? Not
such as reason would have made for them; but they were at the mercy of
the currents of the blood. "Let us go on," said Laura. Merthyr refused
to convoy them. Pericles drove with him an hour on the road, and
returned in glee, to find Vittoria and Laura seated in their carriage,
and Luigi scuffling with Beppo.

"Padrone, see how I assist you," cried Luigi.

Upon this Beppo instantly made a swan's neck of his body and trumpeted:
"A sally from the fortress for forage."

"Whip! whip!" Pericles shouted to his coachman, and the two carriages
parted company at the top of their speed.

Pericles fell a victim to a regiment of bersaglieri that wanted horses,
and unceremoniously stopped his pair and took possession of them on the
route for Peschiera. He was left in a stranded carriage between a dusty
ditch and a mulberry bough. Vittoria and Laura were not much luckier.
They were met by a band of deserters, who made no claim upon the horses,
but stood for drink, and having therewith fortified their fine opinion
of themselves, petitioned for money. A kiss was their next demand. Money
and good humour saved the women from indignity. The band of rascals went
off with a 'Viva l'Italia.' Such scum is upon every popular rising, as
Vittoria had to learn. Days of rain and an incomprehensible inactivity
of the royal army kept her at a miserable inn, where the walls were
bare, the cock had crowed his last. The guns of Peschiera seemed to roam
over the plain like an echo unwillingly aroused that seeks a hollow for
its further sleep. Laura sat pondering for hours, harsh in manner, as if
she hated her. "I think," she said once, "that women are those persons
who have done evil in another world:" The "why?" from Vittoria was
uttered simply to awaken friendly talk, but Laura relapsed into her
gloom. A village priest, a sleek gentle creature, who shook his head
to earth when he hoped, and filled his nostrils with snuff when he
desponded, gave them occasional companionship under the title of
consolation. He wished the Austrians to be beaten, remarking, however,
that they were good Catholics, most fervent Catholics. As the Lord
decided, so it would end! "Oh, delicious creed!" Laura broke out: "Oh,
dear and sweet doctrine! that results and developments in a world where
there is more evil than good are approved by heaven." She twisted
the mild man in supple steel of her irony so tenderly that Vittoria
marvelled to hear her speak o