It may perhaps be well to explain what should be understood by this word, “Tower.”  It is a square building, some forty feet in height, which in any other country would be simply described as a pigeon-house.  A narrow entrance-door, eight feet above the level of the ground, is reached by a very steep flight of steps.  Above the door is a window, in front of which runs a sort of balcony, the floor of which is pierced with openings, like a machicolation, through which the inhabitants may destroy an unwelcome visitor without any danger to themselves.  Between the window and the door are two escutcheons, roughly carved.  One of these bears what was originally a Genoese cross, now so battered that nobody but an antiquary could recognise it.  On the other are chiselled the arms of the family to whom the Tower belongs.  If the reader will complete this scheme of decoration by imagining several bullet marks on the escutcheons and on the window frames, he will have a fair idea of a Corsican mansion, dating from the middle ages.  I had forgotten to add that the dwelling-house adjoins the tower, and is frequently connected with it by some interior passage.

The della Rebbia house and tower stand on the northern side of the square at Pietranera.  The Barricini house and tower are on the southern side.  Since the colonel’s wife had been buried, no member of either family had ever been seen on any side of the square, save that assigned by tacit agreement to its own party.  Orso was about to ride past the mayor’s house when his sister checked him, and suggested his turning down a lane that would take them to their own dwelling without crossing the square at all.

“Why should we go out of our way?” said Orso.  “Doesn’t the square belong to everybody?” and he rode on.

“Brave heart!” murmured Colomba. “. . .  My father! you will be avenged!”

When they reached the square, Colomba put herself between her brother and the Barricini mansion, and her eyes never left her enemy’s windows.  She noticed that they had been lately barricaded and provided with archere. Archere is the name given to narrow openings like loopholes, made between the big logs of wood used to close up the lower parts of the windows.  When an onslaught is expected, this sort of barricade is used, and from behind the logs the attacked party can fire at its assailants with ease and safety.

“The cowards!” said Colomba.  “Look, brother, they have begun to protect themselves!  They have put up barricades!  But some day or other they’ll have to come out.”

Orso’s presence on the southern side of the square made a great sensation at Pietranera, and was taken to be a proof of boldness savouring of temerity.  It was subject of endless comment on the part of the neutrals, when they gathered around the evergreen oak, that night.

“It is a good thing,” they said, “that Barricini’s sons are not back yet, for they are not so patient as the lawyer, and very likely they would not have let their enemy set his foot on their ground without making him pay for his bravado.”