Clementina

But Gaydon was out of his reckoning. There were no fairy tales told for

Misset to overhear, and the Princess Clementina slept in her corner of

the carriage. If a jolt upon a stone wakened her, a movement opposite

told her that her sentinel was watchful and alert. Three times the

berlin stopped for a change of horses; and on each occasion Wogan was

out of the door and hurrying the ostlers before the wheels had ceased to

revolve.

"You should sleep, my friend," said she.

"Not till we reach Italy," he replied; and with the confidence of a

child she nestled warmly in her cloak again and closed her eyes. This

feeling of security was a new luxury to her after the months of anxiety

and prison. The grey light of the morning stole into the berlin and

revealed to her the erect and tireless figure of her saviour. The sun

leaped down the mountain-peaks, and the grey of the light was now a

sparkling gold. Wogan bade her Highness look from the carriage window,

and she could not restrain a cry of delight. On her left, mountain-ridge

rose behind mountain-ridge, away to the towering limestone cliffs of

Monte Scanupia; on her right, the white peaks of the Orto d'Abram

flashed to the sun; and between the hills the broad valley of the Adige

rolled southwards,--a summer country of villages and vines, of

mulberry-trees and fields of maize, in the midst of which rose the

belfries of an Italian town.

"This is Italy," she cried.

"But the Emperor's Italy," answered Wogan; and at half-past nine that

morning the carriage stopped in the public square of Trent. As Wogan

stepped onto the ground, he saw a cloud of dust at the opposite side of

the square, and wrapped in that cloud men on horseback like soldiers in

the smoke of battle; he heard, too, the sound of wheels. The Prince of

Baden had that instant driven away, and he had taken every procurable

horse in the town. Wogan's own horses could go no further. He came back

to the door of the carriage.

"I must search through Trent," said he, "on the mere chance of finding

what will serve us. Your Highness must wait in the inn;" and Clementina,

muffling her face, said to him,-"I dare not. My face is known in Trent, though this is the first time

ever I saw it. But many gentlemen from Trent came to the Innspruck

carnival, and of these a good number were kind enough to offer me their

hearts. They were allowed to besiege me to their content. I must needs

remain in the shelter of the carriage."