where the main road passes into Austrian territory at Castel-Maggiore.
Early one morning Fabrice, after surveying the work that was going on in
the trenches, strolled away with a gun, intent upon lark-shooting. A
wounded bird dropped on the road; and as Fabrice followed it he
encountered a battered old carriage driving towards the frontier. In it
were Giletti, Marietta and an old woman who passed as Marietta's mother.

Giletti leapt to the conclusion that Fabrice had come there, gun in
hand, to insult him, and possibly to carry off Marietta. He leapt out of
the carriage.

"Brigand!" he yelled, "we are only a league from the frontier--now I can
finish you!"

Fabrice saw a pistol levelled at him at a distance of three feet; he
knocked it aside with the butt of his gun, and it went off harmlessly.
Giletti then clutched the gun; the two men wrestled for it, and it
exploded close to Giletti's ear. Staggered for an instant, he quickly
recovered himself; drawing from its sheath a "property" sword, he fell
once more upon Fabrice.

"Look out! he will kill you," came an agitated whisper from Marietta;
"take this!"

A sort of hunting knife was flung out of the carriage door. Fabrice
picked it up, and was nearly stunned forthwith by a blow from the handle
of the "property" sword. Happily Giletti was too near to use his
sword-point. Pulling himself together, Fabrice gave his enemy a gash on
the thigh. Giletti, swearing furiously, injured Fabrice on the cheek.
Blood poured down our hero's face. The thought, "I am disfigured for