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Orso bowed stiffly. Signor Barricini stammered a few words that nobody could hear, and his sons stared steadily at the ceiling rafters.
"Just as I told you," one old man went on. "Ors' Anton' has lived too much on the mainland to carry things through like a man of mettle." "Yet," responded a Rebbianite, "you may notice it is the Barricini who have gone across to him. They are suing for mercy." "It's the prefect who had wheedled them all round," answered the old fellow.
After a hasty conclave, the two herdsmen concluded their wisest plan was to throw the dead pig into a bog, and this project they carefully executed, after each had duly carved himself several slices out of the body of this innocent victim of the feud between the Barricini and the della Rebbia.
"I sent Pieruccio off yesterday evening to call the good fellows together, so that they may attend you home. It would not do for you to enter Pietranera without an escort, and besides, you must know the Barricini are capable of anything!" "Colomba," said Orso, and his tone was severe, "I have asked you, over and over again, not to mention the Barricini and your groundless suspicions to me.
"He is brother to a man who was our miller a scamp and a liar, unworthy of belief." "You will soon see what his interest in the matter was," continued the prefect. "The miller of whom your sister speaks I think his name was Teodoro was the tenant of a mill belonging to the colonel, standing on the very stream the ownership of which M. Barricini was disputing with your father.
The colonel, always a generous man, made very little profit out of the mill. Now Tomaso thought that if Barricini got possession of the stream there would be a heavy rent to pay, for it is well known that Barricini is rather fond of money. In short, to oblige his brother, Tomaso forged the letter from the bandit and there's the whole story.
"Orso! Orso! By the casket I gave you, I beseech you to listen to me! There is blood between you and the Barricini. You shall not go into their house!" "Sister!" "No, brother, you shall not go! Or I will leave this house, and you will never see me again! Have pity on me, Orso!" and she fell on her knees. "I am grieved," said the prefect, "to find Mademoiselle Colomba so unreasonable.
The first man who dares to say anything more about killing or burning, will quite possibly get a scorching at my hands! Be off! Saddle me the gray horse!" "What's this, Orso?" said Colomba, drawing him apart. "You allow these people to insult us? No Barricini would have dared to mutilate any beast of ours in my father's time." "I promise you they shall have reason to repent it.
"Yesterday, on the contrary, I was more cheery and happy than I generally am. I had seen how kind, how indulgent, you were to my sister. The colonel and I were coming home in a boat. Do you know what one of the boatmen said to me in his infernal patois? 'You've killed a deal of game, Ors' Anton', but you'll find Orlanduccio Barricini a better shot than you!"
In 1814, after the emperor's fall, the general's protégé was denounced as a Bonapartist, and his place was taken by Barricini. He, in his turn, was dismissed during the Hundred Days, but when the storm had blown over, he again took possession, with great pomp, of the mayoral seal and the municipal registers. From this moment his star shone brighter than ever.
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