Agnes, or, Beauty and Pleasure — page 318: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

310 LGNES; OR, BEAUTY AND PLEASURE, vt saving yourself! Stop the chaise—and flee | upon the face of heaven, though tho light which weross the country! Leave us to our fate! We | they shed only served to show the loneliness of the have noright to imperil you! You did not come )road which our travellers were now pursuing. It voluntarily amongst us!—you must not suifer on | was not however destined that they should con- our account! Why do you not speak in the same | tinue their way for any considerable distance with- sense, LuciaP why do you remain silent instead | out experiencing a check; and though the myete- of supporting my representations ?’’—and it was | rious arrangements by which they were so speciaily almost with an angry petulance that the Princess | befriended had stood them in such stead, yet they thus turned to address her sister. were now fated to experience one of those aoci- “Tt is not necessary,” Charles hastened to ex- | dents to which all traveliers are liable, most espe- claim, “for her iadyship to follow up the repre: | cially on the Continent. To be brief, just ava sentations of your Highness, I shall not separate | little hamlet was reached between Sienna and from you until I have seen you in a place of safety | Asciano, the chaise seemed to give way all of a —or unless adverse circumstances should transpire | sudden with a shock, and the Countess di Milazzo to remove you from beneath the shield of such | was thrown into the arms of our hero, poor protection as I may be enabled to offer. Inj} The Princess di Spartivento—who was leaning the first place I should deem myself a coward if I | back at the time, and therefore better sustained wwere to abandon two ladies in your position; and | the shock—instantaneously threw up her veil; and in the second place I must follow the itinerary ; again did the sinister fires seem to shoot forth whicb has been placed in my hand, as if it were | from her eyes as she assisted to drag up Lucia a destiny that I was pursuing !” from off De Vere’s form. As the starlight The equipage now reached the gates of Terric-| streamed into the carriage, Charles caught the ciola; and there, to the annoyance of Charles and , flaming of those eyes, and he saw likewise that it the ladies, they beheld the messenger who had so! was almost with a species of fierce rage that the recently dashed past, in discourse with three or | Princess lifted up her sister. The fore-axle had four sbirrt. He wore beneath his cloak the | broken—the chaise had fallen forward—and thus uniform of the Government courier; and thus the | was it that Lucia had been thrown so completely idea which the travellers had formed of his cha- |on De Vere, who was sitting exactly opposite to racter seemed to be fully confirmed. her. The equipage stopped: a sbirvo opened the door} ‘A thousand, thousand pardons, signor!” mur- of the chaise, exclaiming, “ Your passports, if you | mured the Countess, who was indeed full of con- please.” fusion ; for she was not merely bewildered by the “‘T am the bearer of despatches on behalf of the | shock, but likewise by the harsh petulant conduct Commandant of Leghorn,” replied Charles, who | of Bianca towards her. had no other alternative than to hagard the re-| ‘Your ladyship has no excuses to offer,” ro- eponse; and su well had he profited by Lucia’s| sponded Charles, most courteously: “it was an lesson thet he spoke the sentence with a perfect | accident; and no one’s fault. I hopeyou aro not Italian accent. hurt, signora ?” The sbirvo looked dubious—that is to say he| The Countess replied in the negative; and hesitated how to act, when the messenger on horse- | Charles, now leaping from the vebicle, assisted back, turning quickly round, said, ‘‘It is all right.| the ladies to alight. The extent of the injury i know the gentleman to be the despatch bearer.” | sustained by the chaise was soon discovered: the The sbirve bowed and closed the door: the | fore-axle had broken, anda part of the mechanisa, equipage at once rolled on—while Charles and the | or “ bed of the carriage,” as it is called, had like- ladies congratulated themselves on this fresh | wise sustained a fracture. Charles looked around: escape, at the same time wondering how it was| the hamlet seemed to consist of not more than a that they were thus befriended by the messenger. | dozen houses—and its appearance, so far as it In a few minutes the chaise stopped at the post- | might be judged in the starlight, was not such as house; and then the postilion, approaching the| to promise that it possessed an establishment door, said with a significant look and with rapid} where the injury sustained by the vehicle could be utterance, “ You have nothing to fear! everything | very readily repaired. will be right!” “ This is serious!’’ said Charles to the postilion, Charles slipped a couple of pieces of gold into} “Is there a smith in the village P” the man’s hand; and the equipage was soon| “ Yes, signor: but I question whether hecan out of Terricciola, under the guidance of another | mend it.” postilion. “ How far are we from Asciano ?” The assurance which had just been given natu- “Fourteen miles, signor,’ was the reply: for rally proved au immense relief to the minds of our | though the distances were really computed by travellers; and they found it to be fully borne out | leagues, we prefer speaking of miles for the better when they reached Volterra; for immediately on | information of our English readers. Uharles stating that he had travelled with des-} ‘‘ And from Asciano to Cameriuo,” said Charles, patches from tbe Commandant of Leghorn, the; “is about six miles. So we have got just twenty equipage was suffered to continue its way. It was | to complete our journey !” the same at Sienna; and here our travellers} Four or five of the villagers, including tho land- stopped for half-an-hour, to obtain some refresh- | lord of the inn, were now upon the spot; and the ment. worst was speedily ascertained,—to the effect that it was about six o’clock in the evening when | the blacksmith had gone to a neighbouring ham- the journey was resumed; and the chaise rolled | let and would not be back till ten or eleven o'clock out of the city of Sienna. The dusk closed in;|—that on a close inspection of the injury sus- but the stars soon began to make their appearance | tained, it was found to be impossible to patch or SNe eee Ee Dee nn eel —_——— COMMcloookKxs -—-- (©) 5}