but the crowd listened with interest, the small boys drew near again,
the octroi inspectors looked on, and Mommo had a sympathetic audience.
It was the general opinion that he had been outrageously put upon, and
that some one had murdered the sick man, and had tied the body to the
cart in order that Mommo should be accused of the crime, it being highly
likely that a murderer should take so much unnecessary trouble to carry
his victim and the evidence of his crime about with him in such a very
public manner.

"If he were dead, now," observed an old peasant, who had trudged in with
a bundle on his back, "you would immediately be sent to the galleys."

This was so evident that the crowd felt very sorry for Mommo.

"Of course I should," he answered. "By this time to-morrow I should have
chains on my legs, and be breaking stones! What is the law for, I should
like to know?"

Meanwhile, the carabineers had lifted Marcello very gently from the cart
and had carried him into the octroi guard-house, where they set him in a
chair, wrapped the ragged blanket round his knees and waist, and poured
a little wine down his throat. Seeing that he was very weak, and having
ascertained that he had nothing whatever about him by which he could be
identified, they sent for the municipal doctor of that quarter of the
city.

While they were busy within, one of the inspectors chanced to look at
the closed window, and saw the face of a handsome girl pressed against
the pane outside, and a pair of dark eyes anxiously watching what was
going on. The girl was so very uncommonly handsome that the inspector