She saw that a frenzy had seized him.  He looked with eyes drained of human objects; standing square, with stiff half-dropped arms, and an intense melody of wretchedness in his voice.

‘Rinaldo, Rinaldo!’ he shouted:  ’Clelia!—­no answer from man or ghost.  She is dead.  We two said to her die! and she died.  Therefore she is silent, for the dead have not a word.  Oh!  Milan, Milan! accursed betraying city!  I should have found my work in you if you had kept faith.  Now here am I, talking to the strangled throat of this place, and can get no answer.  Where am I?  The world is hollow:  the miserable shell!  They lied.  Battle and slaughter they promised me, and enemies like ripe maize for the reaping-hook.  I would have had them in thick to my hands.  I would have washed my hands at night, and eaten and drunk and slept, and sung again to work in the morning.  They promised me a sword and a sea to plunge it in, and our mother Italy to bless me.  I would have toiled:  I would have done good in my life.  I would have bathed my soul in our colours.  I would have had our flag about my body for a winding-sheet, and the fighting angels of God to unroll me.  Now here am I, and my own pale mother trying at every turn to get in front of me.  Have her away!  It’s a ghost, I know.  She will be touching the strength out of me.  She is not the mother I love and I serve.  Go:  cherish your daughter, you dead woman!’

Angelo reeled.  ‘A spot of blood has sent me mad,’ he said, and caught for a darkness to cross his sight, and fell and lay flat.

Vittoria looked around her; her courage was needed in that long silence.

She adopted his language:  ’Our mother Italy is waiting for us.  We must travel on, and not be weary.  Angelo, my friend, lend me your help over these stones.’

He rose quietly.  She laid her elbow on his hand; thus supported she left a place that seemed to shudder.  All the heavy day they walked almost silently; she not daring to probe his anguish with a question; and he calm and vacant as the hour following thunder.  But, of her safety by his side she had no longer a doubt.  She let him gather weeds and grasses, and bind them across her feet, and perform friendly services, sure that nothing earthly could cause such a mental tempest to recur.  The considerate observation which at all seasons belongs to true courage told her that it was not madness afflicting Angelo.

Near nightfall they came upon a forester’s hut, where they were welcomed by an old man and a little girl, who gave them milk and black bread, and straw to rest on.  Angelo slept in the outer air.  When Vittoria awoke she had the fancy that she had taken one long dive downward in a well; and on touching the bottom found her head above the surface.  While her surprise was wearing off, she beheld the woodman’s little girl at her feet holding up one end of her cloak, and peeping underneath, overcome