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Updated: June 19, 2025
And then he begged to be told whether the country house owned by that worthy Signor Brandolaccio, who had brought succour to the wounded man, was very far away from Pietranera, and whether he could not go there himself, to see his friend.
"I can't walk," he said. "Fly, all of you! Good-bye, Miss Nevil! Give me your hand! Farewell!" "We won't leave you!" cried the two girls. "If you can't walk," said Brandolaccio, "I must carry you. Come, sir, a little courage! We shall have time to slip away by the ravine. The Signor Padre will keep them busy." "No, leave me!" said Orso, lying down on the ground.
Do listen to the row the Padre is making with your gun, Ors' Anton'! Unluckily, it's as black as pitch, and nobody takes much harm from being shot at in the dark." "Hush!" cried Colomba. "I hear a horse. We're saved!" Startled by the firing, a horse which had been wandering through the maquis, was really coming close up to them. "Saved, indeed!" repeated Brandolaccio.
It did not take the bandit more than an instant to rush up to the creature, catch hold of his mane, and with Colomba's assistance, bridle him with a bit of knotted rope. "Now we must warn the Padre," he said. He whistled twice; another distant whistle answered the signal, and the loud voice of the Manton gun was hushed. Then Brandolaccio sprang on the horse's back.
"My future sister-in-law doesn't like the maquis," laughed Colomba. "She got too great a fright in one of them." "Well," said Orso, "you are resolved to stay here? So be it! But tell me whether there is anything I can do for you?" "Nothing," said Brandolaccio. "You've heaped kindnesses upon us.
Orso slipped two five-franc pieces into the bandit's hand. "It was Colomba who sent you the powder. This is to buy the shoes." "Nonsense, Lieutenant!" cried Brandolaccio, handing him back the two coins. "D'ye take me for a beggar? I accept bread and powder, but I won't have anything else!" "We are both old soldiers, so I thought we might have given each other a lift. Well, good-bye to you!"
"One moment," said Brandolaccio. "We have to slip away first, on our side. Signor Prefetto, the custom, when people meet in the house of a mutual friend, is to allow each other half an hour's law, after departure." The prefect cast a scornful glance at him. "Your servant, signorina, and gentlemen all!" said Brandolaccio.
"Brandolaccio is an upright man," said Colomba; "but as to Castriconi, I have heard he is quite unprincipled." "I think," said Orso, "that he is as good as Brandolaccio, and Brandolaccio is as good as he. Both of them are at open war with society. Their first crime leads them on to fresh ones, every day, and yet they are very likely not half so guilty as many people who don't live in the maquis."
"This is a trap!" cried the mayor, trying to get the door open. But, by the bandits' orders, as was afterward discovered, Saveria had locked it on the outside. "Good people," said Brandolaccio, "don't be afraid of me. I'm not such a devil as I look. We mean no harm at all. Signor Prefetto, I'm your very humble servant. Gently, lieutenant! You're strangling me! We're here as witnesses!
"I have to contradict another assertion made by these gentlemen," said Colomba. She threw open the door into the kitchen and instantly Brandolaccio, the licentiate in theology, and Brusco, the dog, marched into the room. The two bandits were unarmed apparently, at all events; they wore their cartridge belts, but the pistols, which are their necessary complement, were absent.
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