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She was already lifting the trunk alone, when Orso came hastily to her assistance. "There is something for you in this trunk, my dear Colomba," said he. "You must excuse the modesty of my gifts. A lieutenant on half-pay hasn't a very well-lined purse!" As he spoke, he opened the trunk, and took out of it a few gowns, a shawl, and some other things likely to be useful to a young girl.
But the two parties were both leaderless, and Corsicans, whose rage is always subject to discipline, seldom come to blows unless the chief authors of their internecine quarrels are present. Besides, Colomba, who had learned prudence from victory, restrained her little garrison. "Let the poor folks weep in peace," she said. "Let the old man carry his own flesh home.
And, indeed, there's nothing more for us to do here. But for that d d Corporal Taupin the drunken Frenchman showed himself before I'd surrounded the maquis we should have had them all like fish in a net." "Are there only seven of you here?" inquired Colomba.
"Colomba, take Miss Nevil away! for God's sake!" "You're strong, Signorina Colomba," said Brandolaccio. "Catch hold of his shoulders; I'll take his feet. That's it! Now, then march!" In spite of his protests, they began to carry him rapidly along. Miss Lydia was following them, in a terrible fright, when a gun was fired, and five or six other reports instantly responded.
"But, Colomba That wouldn't be at all proper on my part " "I see. With you women who live in towns, your great anxiety is to be proper. We village women only think of what is kind." "But it's so late! And then what will your brother think of me?" "He'll think his friends have not forsaken him, and that will give him courage to bear his sufferings." "And my father? He'll be so anxious!"
Small and well-shaped though her hand was, it possessed a strength of which we have already noticed certain proofs. "Despise you!" cried Colomba. "After what you've done? No, indeed! She praises you! Oh, Orso, I could tell you so many things about her!" Lydia's hand was still struggling for its freedom, but Colomba kept drawing it closer to Orso.
After about twenty minutes of this trying ascent, they found themselves on a small plateau, clothed with arbutus and myrtle, growing round great granite boulders that jutted above the soil in every direction. Miss Lydia was very tired, there was no sign of the village, and it was almost quite dark. "Do you know, Colomba, my dear," she said, "I'm afraid we've lost our way!"
Each held the corner of a funeral pall, which they slowly; dropped over the figure of Sister Maria Colomba, and, kneeling, held it over her until the last verse of the psalm had been sung. This suggestive ceremony closed the service.
Then in a loud, firm voice, instinct with passion and resolve, she read, standing, the formal declaration of her religious vows. When this was over the mother-superior led the novice, now Sister Maria Colomba, to a small table on which lay a bridal wreath of white roses and a crown of thorns.
In his charming romance, "Colomba," M. Prosper Mérimée has depicted the typical Corsican, even of the towns, as preoccupied, gloomy, suspicious, ever on the alert, hovering about his dwelling, like a falcon over his nest, seemingly in preparation for attack or defence.
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