A Sicilian Romance

The man replied, that on a very dark and stormy night, about a week

before, two persons had come to the cottage, and desired shelter. That

they were unattended; but seemed to be persons of consequence in

disguise. That they paid very liberally for what they had; and that

they departed from the cottage a few hours before the arrival of the

duke. The duke enquired concerning the course they had taken, and having

received information, remounted his horse, and set forward in pursuit.

The road lay for several leagues through the forest, and the darkness,

and the probability of encountering banditti, made the journey

dangerous. About the break of day they quitted the forest, and entered

upon a wild and mountainous country, in which they travelled some

miles without perceiving a hut, or a human being. No vestige of

cultivation appeared, and no sounds reached them but those of their

horses feet, and the roaring of the winds through the deep forests

that overhung the mountains. The pursuit was uncertain, but the duke

resolved to persevere.

They came at length to a cottage, where he repeated his enquiries, and

learned to his satisfaction that two persons, such as he described,

had stopped there for refreshment about two hours before. He found it

now necessary to stop for the same purpose. Bread and milk, the only

provisions of the place, were set before him, and his attendants would

have been well contented, had there been sufficient of this homely

fare to have satisfied their hunger.

Having dispatched an hasty meal, they again set forward in the way

pointed out to them as the route of the fugitives. The country

assumed a more civilized aspect. Corn, vineyards, olives, and groves

of mulberry-trees adorned the hills. The vallies, luxuriant in shade,

were frequently embellished by the windings of a lucid stream, and

diversified by clusters of half-seen cottages. Here the rising turrets

of a monastery appeared above the thick trees with which they were

surrounded; and there the savage wilds the travellers had passed,

formed a bold and picturesque background to the scene.

To the questions put by the duke to the several persons he met, he

received answers that encouraged him to proceed. At noon he halted at

a village to refresh himself and his people. He could gain no

intelligence of Julia, and was perplexed which way to chuse; but

determined at length to pursue the road he was then in, and

accordingly again set forward. He travelled several miles without

meeting any person who could give the necessary information, and began

to despair of success.

The lengthened shadows of the mountains, and

the fading light gave signals of declining day; when having gained the

summit of a high hill, he observed two persons travelling on horseback

in the plains below. On one of them he distinguished the habiliments

of a woman; and in her air he thought he discovered that of Julia.

While he stood attentively surveying them, they looked towards the

hill, when, as if urged by a sudden impulse of terror, they set off on

full speed over the plains. The duke had no doubt that these were the

persons he sought; and he, therefore, ordered some of his people to

pursue them, and pushed his horse into a full gallop. Before he

reached the plains, the fugitives, winding round an abrupt hill, were

lost to his view. The duke continued his course, and his people, who

were a considerable way before him, at length reached the hill, behind

which the two persons had disappeared. No traces of them were to be

seen, and they entered a narrow defile between two ranges of high and

savage mountains; on the right of which a rapid stream rolled along,

and broke with its deep resounding murmurs the solemn silence of the

place.