Antonio Guerra, who put his head out of an upper window to inquire
who they were, and what they wanted.

'It is I, Alessandro Malfi. I want to know where your master is, and
why he has not been to my house this evening as he promised?'

'I thought he was there,' said Antonio. 'He set off from here to go
soon after seven o'clock.'

'That is most extraordinary!' returned Malfi. 'What in the world can
have become of him?'

'It is very strange, certainly,' answered the servant. 'He has never
come home; and when you rang I thought it was he returned from the
party.'

As there was no more to be learned, the two friends now parted;
Malfi expressing considerable surprise and some uneasiness at the
non-appearance of his brother-in-law: whilst of Giuseppe we hear
nothing more till the following afternoon, when, whilst at work in
his vineyard, he was accosted by two officers of justice from
Aquila, and he found himself arrested, under an accusation of having
waylaid Mendez in a mountain-pass on the preceding evening, and
wounded him with the design of taking his life.

The first words Ripa uttered on hearing this impeachment--words
that, like all the rest of his behaviour, told dreadfully against
him--were: 'Isn't he dead, then?'

'No thanks to you that he's not,' replied the officer; 'but he's