thought, until I had recovered my sketch-book and overtaken my escort,
with whom I rode triumphantly back into Ascoli, where my absence had been
the cause of much anxiety, and my fate was even then being eagerly
discussed. My friends with whom I usually sat round the chemist's door,
were much exercised by the reserve which I manifested in reply to the
fire of cross-examination to which I was subjected for the next few days;
and English eccentricity, which was proverbial even in this secluded
town, received a fresh illustration in the light and airy manner with
which I treated a capture and escape from brigands, which I regarded with
such indifference that I could not be induced even to condescend to
details. "It was a mere scuffle; there were only four; and, being an
Englishman, I polished them all off with the 'box,'"--and I closed my
fist, and struck a scientific attitude of self-defence, branching off
into a learned disquisition on the pugilistic art, which filled my
hearers with respect and amazement. From this time forward the sentiment
with which I regarded my air-gun underwent a change. When a friend had
made me a present of it a year before, I regarded it in the light of a
toy, and rather resented the gift as too juvenile. I wonder he did not
give me a kite or a hoop, I mentally reflected. Then I had found it
useful among Italians, who are a trifling people, and like playthings;
but now that it had saved my life, and sent a bullet through a man's
heart, I no longer entertained the same feeling of contempt for it. Not
again would I make light of it,--this potent engine of destruction which
had procured me the character of being a magician. I would hide it from
human gaze, and cherish it as a sort of fetish. So I bought a walking-
stick and an umbrella, and strapped it up with them, wrapped in my plaid;
and when, shortly after, an unexpected remittance from an aunt supplied
me with money enough to buy a horse from one of the officers of my
friend's regiment, which soon after arrived, I accepted their invitation
to accompany them on their brigand-hunting expeditions, not one of them