to follow her, took me by a back way behind the houses, up a stair cut
into the rock, and so to the upper street of the little town. Towering
above me then, I saw the broad green side of the mountain, whose summit
was wreathed in white mist.

"You are free to go now, sir," said she. "There lies your honour's way."
I thanked her warmly, offering her my hand. But she put hers behind her.

"Is that all you are going to give me?" she asked me, and made me blush
for my poverty.

"I would give you something very handsome if I had it," I said, "for you
have done me a real service. It would have been impossible for me to
fight the Grand Duke, feeling as I do towards one of his subjects. You
have saved me from a painful dilemma and deserve more than I can offer
you." Such as they were, however, I held out to her in one hand my last
gold ducat, in the other my "Aminta." The maid looked all about her,
shaking her head at the choice. Nobody was near--the narrow street was
asleep. "I would much rather take a kiss from your honour," said she.
"No girl likes to be disappointed--and you have a smooth chin."

I could not but tell her that in accepting a salute of the kind she
little knew what risk she was running; to which she at once replied that
a girl in her situation, with a houseful of French soldiers, was
indifferent to common dangers. I told her I was sorry to hear it, and
felt obliged to add that I was peculiarly accursed.

"Why," says she, mighty curious, "whatever have you done, a pretty
gentleman like you?"