Agnes, or, Beauty and Pleasure — page 72: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

| | | Se ed Ut bloody objects to her view. But no blood met her eyes: they had been stunned by the blows—and the officer was beginning to recover. For an in- stant Ciprina thought of making one desperate attempt to save herself by springing out of the vehicle; for though the door had banged again, yet it could be reopened in a moment: but it was proceeding at a rate which made her abandon a design that could only have been followed by a fractured skull on the spot. Another idea how- ever struck her: she thrust her head out of the window and called to the postilion to stop,— adding that the sbivrvi were murdered ! The postilion now drew in his horses at a dis- tance of at least a mile from the spot where the previous adventure had taken place ; and Ciprina, bursting open the door, was about to spring forth, when the officer recovered just sufliciently to seize her by the garments. Rendered desperate by a sense of her position, the young lady dealt him a blow with all her force; and tearing away from his clutch, she sprang into the road. “Go to them !” she cried to the postilion : “they want you!—they are dying!” Away she then sped, leaping a ditch and darting up an eminence as quickly as if bloodhounds were upon her track, or as if she were a deer flying from the pursuing dogs. She glanced over her shoulder: the officer Of the sbir7i was just de- scending from the chaise! On she went !—an- other look cast behind, and she saw that he was now speeding after her! Fear gave fresh impetus to her pace; and she plunged into a wood, so that the pursued and the pursuer were now lost to each other’s view. The trees stood sufficiently apart to enable Ci- prina to continue her way without impediment, especially as there was no underwood thicket. She thought to herself that the officer would pro- ceed straight through the grove as she herself was then doing : she therefore turned abruptly off to the right, and still continued her way. At length, utterly breathless, she sank down upon the damp grass, not daring as yet to congratulate herself on having effectually succeeded in evading pursuit, and still with her ideas too much bewildered and confused to be enabled to reflect what she should next do in case her escape might prove to be ac- tually ensured. The moonlight, be it remembered, was still refulgent outside the grove; but within a semi-obscurity prevailed; for many of the trees that composed this wood, were of the hardy species which in the Apennines retain their foliage not merely to the very end of autumn, but far into the winter, or even all throughit. She therefore thought the best thing she could do would be to remain concealed where she was for awhile; and this resolution she adopted. She listened in an agony of terror lest footsteps should draw nigh : but she heard none. Then she listened in the hope of hearing the sounds of the equipage rolling along the road in one direction or another, as an indication that the pursuit had been abandoned and that the sbirri were departing. But no such certainty could she obtain; and when an hour passed and everything continued quiet, she began to breathe more freely,—saying to herself, “ The chaise must have gone, and I am too far from the road to have caught the rolling of the wheels or the trampling of the horses !” DLL LLL LLL LL NE aS AGNES; OR, BEAUTY ANP PLEASURE, She now felt herself so benumbed with the cold that she dared not remain stationary any longer. She therefore continued her way through the wood; and in a few minutes she emerged therefrom. It was now that she asked herself what she was to do—what course she was to adopt? She was be- wildered how to reply to these questions. She dared not think of returning to Florence, even if she possessed the means of conveyance; and the idea which naturally struck her was therefore that she ought to get into some neighbouring State with the least possible delay. She went walking on at random, in the hope of coming to some town or village where she might tell a plausible tale and obtain a vehicle. In about half-an-hour she en- tered upon a main road; but whether it were that which the postchaise had previously been pursuing, she could not possibly tell—for her roamings had utterly bewildered all her ideas in respect to the geography of the district. Nevertheless she re- solved to pursue this road ata venture, as the only probable means of reaching a place where a con- veyance could be procured. Nor was she disappointed; for at the expiration of about twenty minutes she beheld the spire of a church peeping above the trees, its vane glittering in the moonlight. Five minutes more, and she entered a tolerable sized village. She now ad- vanced cautiously, resolving to divert her footsteps in a moment if she should happen to catch a glimpse of a postchaise at all resembling the one from which she had escaped nearly two hours pre- viously. The village evidently consisted of only one principal street, formed by the road itself; and no equipage of any kind was anywhere drawn up. She now looked out for an inn; and she soon discovered one, Before she approached the door, she was careful to fling a glance into the adjoining yard to see if the postchaise happened to be there: but nothing of the sort met her view. Then she mustered up all her courage and rang at the bell. In three or four minutes Ciprina heard footsteps moving inside: the door was opened—and a good- tempered, stout, matronly female, whose humour seemed by no means rufiied at having been aroused at such an unseemly hour, made her appearance. Ciprina had already thrown back her veil; and her beautiful face as well as her youthful aspect at once tended to enlist the sympathy of the land- lady of the little establishment — for such the woman was. “Blessed saints!” she cried; “ signora, is it possible that such as you can be out all alone at this time of the night—or rather morning—and on foot too! But pray walk in. Goodness! what cam have happened P” Ciprina was delighted to find that she had en- countered so good-tempered a hostess; and she at once entered the inn. “Come to the kitchen, my dear young lady,” exclaimed the woman. ‘The embers cannot be all extinct—for we were up late and besides, a good faggot will soon make a blaze.” And a blazing fire there assuredly was within the space of a very few minutes on the hearth of that kitchen, Then the good dame put water to boil; and she began preparing her coffee-pot, giving vent all the while to ejaculations of won- der in respect to what might be the cause of the young lady being abroad and alone at such ——— mMmicdook (©) ae iS ye. “le