Amidst the other disorders of the time, it was no unfrequent custom for the younger or more dissolute of the nobles, in small and armed companies, to parade the streets at night, seeking occasion for a licentious gallantry among the cowering citizens, or a skirmish at arms with some rival stragglers of their own order.  Such a band had Irene and her companion now chanced to encounter.

“Holy mother!” cried Benedetta, turning pale, and half running, “what curse has befallen us?  How could we have been so foolish as to tarry so late at the lady Nina’s!  Run, Signora,—­run, or we shall fall into their hands!”

But the advice of Benedetta came too late,—­the fluttering garments of the women had been already descried:  in a moment more they were surrounded by the marauders.  A rude hand tore aside Benedetta’s veil, and at sight of features, which, if time had not spared, it could never very materially injure, the rough aggressor cast the poor nurse against the wall with a curse, which was echoed by a loud laugh from his comrades.

“Thou hast a fine fortune in faces Giuseppe!”

“Yes; it was but the other day that he seized on a girl of sixty.”

“And then, by way of improving her beauty, cut her across the face with his dagger, because she was not sixteen!”

“Hush, fellows! whom have we here?” said the chief of the party, a man richly dressed, and who, though bordering upon middle age, had only the more accustomed himself to the excesses of youth; as he spoke, he snatched the trembling Irene from the grasp of his followers.  “Ho, there! the torches!  Oh che bella faccia! what blushes—­what eyes!—­nay, look not down, pretty one; thou needst not be ashamed to win the love of an Orsini—­yes; know the triumph thou hast achieved—­it is Martino di Porto who bids thee smile upon him!”

“For the blest Mother’s sake release me!  Nay, sir, this must not be—­I am not unfriended—­this insult shall not pass!”

“Hark to her silver chiding; it is better than my best hound’s bay!  This adventure is worth a month’s watching.  What! will you not come?—­restive—­shrieks too!—­Francesco, Pietro, ye are the gentlest of the band.  Wrap her veil around her,—­muffle this music;—­so! bear her before me to the palace, and tomorrow, sweet one, thou shalt go home with a basket of florins which thou mayest say thou hast bought at market.”

But Irene’s shrieks, Irene’s struggles, had already brought succour to her side, and, as Adrian approached the spot, the nurse flung herself on her knees before him.

“Oh, sweet signor, for Christ’s grace save us!  Deliver my young mistress—­her friends love you well!  We are all for the Colonna, my lord; yes, indeed, all for the Colonna!  Save the kin of your own clients, gracious signor!”

“It is enough that she is a woman,” answered Adrian, adding, between his teeth, “and that an Orsini is her assailant.”  He strode haughtily into the thickest of the group; the servitors laid hands on their swords, but gave way before him as they recognised his person; he reached the two men who had already seized Irene; in one moment he struck the foremost to the ground, in another, he had passed his left arm round the light and slender form of the maiden, and stood confronting the Orsini with his drawn blade, which, however, he pointed to the ground.