"Excuse me, but I should very much like to see how you are going to
prevent me from leaving your house."

"I will not allow you to go by yourself; we must go together."

"Certainly; I understand you perfectly. Get your sword or your pistols,
and we will start directly. There is room for two in the carriage."

"That won't do. You must dine with me, and then we can go in my
carriage."

You make a mistake. I should be a fool if I dined with you when our
miserable dispute is all over the village; to-morrow it will have reached
Gorice."

"If you won't dine with me, I will dine with you, and people may say what
they like. We will go after dinner, so send away that conveyance."

I had to give in to him. The wretched count stayed with me till noon,
endeavouring to persuade me that he had a perfect right to beat a
country-woman in the road, and that I was altogether in the wrong.

I laughed, and said I wondered how he derived his right to beat a free
woman anywhere, and that his pretence that I being her lover had no right
to protect her was a monstrous one.

"She had just left my arms," I continued, "was I not therefore her
natural protector? Only a coward or a monster like yourself would have
remained indifferent, though, indeed, I believe that even you would have
done the same."