CHAPTER XXXIV

I FALL IN WITH THE PLAYERS

My present situation was of that shocking description which defies thought and paralyses the will.  I was utterly alone, deprived of the means of joining the only person in Italy who loved me, utterly destitute of means, placed in a country from which I had been banished as a criminal.  I shall be understood, then, when I say that for a week or more I wandered over the face of the land, not regarding whither I went (so only that I avoided my kind), nor what became of me.  How I subsisted I am at a loss to tell; I have no clear recollections—­nothing but a confused sense of abiding despair, hunger, haste and desolation.  I know not through what regions I passed, the names of what villages I avoided, the names of what farm-houses I pillaged of eggs and milk in order that I might keep a soul in my body.  It is true that I became a common thief; it is very true that during this most dreadful period I spoke not to one living person—­for whenever I saw man, woman or child I crouched in whatsoever shelter I could find, and lay there trembling like a beast of chase until the enemy (as I deemed him) had passed and I could venture out again to seek for food.  Providentially for me, my banishment from Lucca had taken place in the summer; I suffered nothing from exposure, and had no real lack of sustenance.  I used to rummage the streets of villages at night to get broken meat; as I have said, I did not scruple to rob henroosts, or to suck the teats of cows and goats in the byres.  During this time I neither prayed to God nor thought of Virginia in her horrid peril.  All my efforts of mind and sense were directed to hiding and finding food.  I was very near losing my wits.

Gradually, however, I recovered my self-possession, and with that, one by one, my proper faculties returned.  I was surprised at myself when one day, seeing a man hoeing in a field, I felt the desire to speak to him and ask my whereabouts.  I was in a dreadful fright when it came to the point that I had gone too far towards him to recede; but I mastered myself by an effort and brought myself to accost him.  Without any surprise at my appearance, which was, indeed, no worse than his own, he told me that I was in the Vale of Chianti, between Certaldo and Poggibonsi, and that if I persevered upon the road I saw before me I should reach the latter place by nightfall.  “But, brother,” said he, “you look to have seen better days, and I advise you to push on to Siena.  May be you’ll find employment there—­for that is a rich city.  Here I tell you there is nothing.  It is little use my offering you a crust, for I have not got one.”  I thanked him, and having broken cover, stoutly took the road and limped along as best I could.