This remark produced a serious enquiry, which ended in as serious an
embarrassment, for Du Pont had been rifled of nearly all his money, when
he was taken prisoner; the remainder he had given to the sentinel, who
had enabled him occasionally to leave his prison-chamber; and Ludovico,
who had for some time found a difficulty, in procuring any part of the
wages due to him, had now scarcely cash sufficient to procure necessary
refreshment at the first town, in which they should arrive.
Their poverty was the more distressing, since it would detain them
among the mountains, where, even in a town, they could scarcely consider
themselves safe from Montoni. The travellers, however, had only to
proceed and dare the future; and they continued their way through lonely
wilds and dusky vallies, where the overhanging foliage now admitted, and
then excluded the moon-light;--wilds so desolate, that they appeared, on
the first glance, as if no human being had ever trode them before. Even
the road, in which the party were, did but slightly contradict this
error, for the high grass and other luxuriant vegetation, with which it
was overgrown, told how very seldom the foot of a traveller had passed
it.
At length, from a distance, was heard the faint tinkling of a
sheep-bell; and, soon after, the bleat of flocks, and the party then
knew, that they were near some human habitation, for the light, which
Ludovico had fancied to proceed from a town, had long been concealed by
intervening mountains. Cheered by this hope, they quickened their pace
along the narrow pass they were winding, and it opened upon one of those
pastoral vallies of the Apennines, which might be painted for a scene
of Arcadia, and whose beauty and simplicity are finely contrasted by the
grandeur of the snow-topt mountains above.
The morning light, now glimmering in the horizon, shewed faintly, at
a little distance, upon the brow of a hill, which seemed to peep from
'under the opening eye-lids of the morn,' the town they were in
search of, and which they soon after reached. It was not without some
difficulty, that they there found a house, which could afford shelter
for themselves and their horses; and Emily desired they might not rest
longer than was necessary for refreshment. Her appearance excited some
surprise, for she was without a hat, having had time only to throw on
her veil before she left the castle, a circumstance, that compelled her
to regret again the want of money, without which it was impossible to
procure this necessary article of dress.
Ludovico, on examining his purse, found it even insufficient to supply
present refreshment, and Du Pont, at length, ventured to inform the
landlord, whose countenance was simple and honest, of their exact
situation, and requested, that he would assist them to pursue their
journey; a purpose, which he promised to comply with, as far as he was
able, when he learned that they were prisoners escaping from Montoni,
whom he had too much reason to hate. But, though he consented to lend
them fresh horses to carry them to the next town, he was too poor
himself to trust them with money, and they were again lamenting their
poverty, when Ludovico, who had been with his tired horses to the hovel,
which served for a stable, entered the room, half frantic with joy, in
which his auditors soon participated. On removing the saddle from one of
the horses, he had found beneath it a small bag, containing, no doubt,
the booty of one of the condottieri, who had returned from a plundering
excursion, just before Ludovico left the castle, and whose horse having
strayed from the inner court, while his master was engaged in drinking,
had brought away the treasure, which the ruffian had considered the
reward of his exploit.