lordship," he assured me; and then, with a start, he added, "Hark, sir,
hark! As I live by bread, we are pursued even now." I listened, and
could hear a long way off the regular pounding of a horse.

However, I paid no more attention to that than to see to the priming of
my pistols. I had been near death too often of late to stand on any
ceremony with it; and there are times in life when one can see beyond
it. I had a certainty that I should not die until I had found Virginia.
Therefore I dismissed the carriage and walked on. Now and again, as I
entered more deeply into the thicket, I caught the sound of hoofs; but I
soon grew to disregard them and presently forgot their menace
altogether.

This wood, of holm-oak, holly and beech for the most part, rises and
dips twice before it climbs the final ascent to the crown above
Altopascio. A cart-track runs through it, deeply rutted and always miry,
on either hand of which glades are revealed of great beauty. Here, if
the trees are remote, the grass grows lush and green. Hereabouts are the
flowers, tall and plenty--foxgloves and mullein, such as we have at
home, and loosestrife (lysimachia), both the yellow and the purple. The
sun shone brilliantly between the leaves, the air was sweetly tempered,
the wood was empty. I felt exalted, as I always do when I am alone. I
was hopeful; I was still young. God, methought, was about to bless me
abundantly, after making stern trial of me. My secret thought ran
rhythmically in my head. I walked briskly up the first slope, surmounted
it, and stood looking down upon a scene more charming than that which I
was about to leave--a deeper, greener glade, with a clearing in the
midst, and a rude gipsy tent and a little fire, and two persons beside
it. As I stood looking I heard the crackling of the brushwood and dead
twigs behind me. The horseman, whoever he was, had entered the wood and