paint you there at my leisure."

"You're a brave one," she said, with a little laugh; "there is not
another man in all Ascoli who would dare to pay me a visit without an
escort of twenty soldiers. But I am too grateful for your amiability to
let you run such a risk. _Addio_, Signer Inglese. There are many
reasons why I can't let you draw my picture, but I am not ungrateful,
see!"--and she offered me her cheek, on which I instantly imprinted a
chaste and fraternal salute.

"Don't think that you've seen the last of me, _carissima_," I called out,
as she turned away. "I shall live on the memory of that kiss till I have
an opportunity of repeating it."

And as I watched her retreating figure with an artist's eye, I was struck
with its grace and suppleness, combined, as I had observed while she was
helping me to load the donkey, with an unusual degree of muscular
strength for a woman.

The spot at which this episode had taken place was so romantic, that I
determined to make a sketch of it, and the shades of evening were closing
in so fast that they warned me to hurry if I would reach the town before
dark. I had just finished it, and was stooping to pick up my air-gun,
when I heard a sudden rush, and before I had time to look up, I was
thrown violently forward on my face, and found myself struggling in the
embrace of a powerful grasp, from which I had nearly succeeded in freeing
myself, when the arms which were clasping me were reinforced by several
more pair, and I felt a rope being passed round my body.

"All right, signors!" I exclaimed; "I yield to superior numbers. You