Agnes Vol. 2 — page 73: what you’re looking at

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

AGNES; OR, BEAUTY ANP PLKANCRs. bloody objecta to her view. But no blood met her She now felt horself ao benumbed with the cold, eyes: they had been stunned by the blows—and | that she dared not remain stationary eny longer. the officer was beginning to recover. For an in- | She therefore continued her way through the woud ; stant Ciprins thought of making one desperate | and in a few winutes she emerged therefrom. It attempt to save hereolf by springing out of tho | was now that she asked herself what ahe was to vehiclo; for though the door had banged again, | do—what course she was to adopt P She wae be- yet it could be reopened in a moment: but it was | wildered how to reply to these questions. She proceeding a¢ a rate which made her abandon a | dared not think of returning to Florence, design that could only have been followed by a/|she possessed the means of conveyance; and the fractured skull on the spot. Another idea how- | idea which naturally atruok her was therefore that ever struck ber: she thrust her head out of the | she ought to get into some neighbouring State window and called to the postilion to stop,—| with the least possible delay. She went walking adding that the sbirri were murdered ! on at random, in the hope of coming to some town Tbe postilion now drew in his horses at a dis- | or village where she might tell a plausible tale and tance of at least a mile from the spot where the | obtain a vehicle. In about half-an-hour she en- af adventure had taken place ; and Ciptina, | tered upon a main road ; but whethgr it were that 64 revi ' bureti g open the door, was about to spring turth, | which the postchaise had previously een pursuing, when the, nfijger recovered just sufficiently to ecize | she could not possibly tell—for vl roamings had her by the gatments. Rendered desperate by a| utterly bewildered ajl her ideas in| respect to the sevee of her position, the young lady dealt him a | geography of the district. Nevertheless she re- blow with all her forco; and tearing away from | solved to pursue this road ata venture, as the only his clutch, she sprang into the road. probable means of reaching 4 place where a con- “Go to them !” she cried to the postilion : | veyance could be procured. “they want you !—they are dying!”’ Nor was she disappointed; for at the expiration Away she then sped, leaping a ditch and darting | of about twenty minutes she beheld the spire of a up an eminence as quickly ae if bloodhounds were | church peeping above the trees, its vane glittering upon her track, or as if she were a deer flying |in the moonlight, Five minutes more, and she from the pursuing dogs. She glanced over her | entered a tolerable sized village. She now ad- shoulder: the officer of the sbirri was just do- | vanced cautiously, resolving to divert her footateps ecendiig from the chaise! On sho went !—an-/in a moment if she should happen to catch a other look cast behind, and she saw that he was | glimpse of a postchaiso at all resembling the one now speeding after her! Fear gave fresh impetus | from which she had escaped nearly two hours pre- to ber pace; and she plunged into a wood, so that | viously. The village evidently consisted of only the pursued and the pursuer were now lost to each | one principal street, formed by the rvad itself; other’s view. and no equipage of any kind was anywhere drawn The trees stood sufficiently apart to enable Ci- | up. She now Jooked out for an inn; and she svon prina to continue her way without impediment, | discovered one. Before she approached the door, especially aa there was. no underwood thicket. | she was cereful to fling a glance into the edjoining She thought to herself that the officer would pro- | yard tu see if the pustchaise happened to be there: peed straight through the grove 43 she herself was | but nothing of the sort met her viow. Then sho thon duixgz she therefore turned abruptly off to} mustered up all her courtge and rang at the bell. the right, and still continued her way. At length, | In three or four minutes Ciprina heard footsteps utterly breathless, she sank down upon the damp | moving inside : the dour was upened—and a good- grass, not daring as yet to congratulate herself on | tempered, stout, matronly fewale, whose bucour baving effectually aucoeeded in ovading pursuit, | seemed by no means ruffed at having been aroused and still with ber ideas too much bewildered and | at such an unseemly hour, made her appesrance. sonfused to be enabled to reflect what she ehould | Ciprina had already thrown back her veil ; and hor pext do in case her escape might prove to bo ao- | beautiful face aa well as her youthful aspect at wally engured, The moonlight, be it remembered, | once tended to enlist the sympathy of the land- was still retulgent outside the grove; but within a | lady of the little establishment — for such the somi-obscurity prevailed ; fur many of the treos | woman was. that composed this wood, were of the hardy species} “ Blessed saints!” she cried; “signora, is it which in the Apennines retain their foliage not | possible that such as you can be out all alone at merely to the very end of autumn, but far into] thie time of the night—or rather morning—and the winter, or even all through it. She therefore} on foot too! But pray walk in. Goodness! what thought the best thing she could do would be to! cas have happened ?” : remain concealed where she was for awhile; and| Ciprina was delighted to find that she had en- this resolution sho adopted. She listened in an | countered so good-tempered a hostess; and sho at agony of terror leat footsteps should draw nigh : | once entered the inn. but she heard none. Then she listened in the} ‘Come to the kitchep, my dear young lady,” hope of hearing the sounds of the equipage rolling | exclaimed the woman. “The embers cannot be slung the road in one direction or another, as an | all extinct—for we were up late and besides, indication that the pursuit had been abandoned | a good faggot will soon make a blaze.” snd that the sbirri were departing. But no such} And a blazing fire there assuredly was within ‘ertainty sbe obtain; and when an hvur|the space of a very few minutes on the hearth passed and éverything continued quiet, she began | of that kitchen. Then the good dame put water 0 breathe more freely,——saying to herself, “ The| to boil; and she began preparing her coffee-pot, shaise must have gone, and I am too far from the | giving vent all the while to ejaculations of von- ‘oad to have caught the roiling of the whéuls or|der in respect to what might be the cause of be trampling of the Lorses !” ) ithe young lady being abroad and alone at suvb even if, LOO) SS (C@