distance of a quarter of a mile the road again divided into three ways, and on reaching these the traveller might again stray from his route, he begged Luigi to be his guide.
“Luigi threw his cloak on the ground, placed his carbine on his shoulder, and freed from his heavy covering, preceded the traveller with the rapid step of a mountaineer, which a horse can scarcely keep up with.
In ten minutes Luigi and the traveller reached the crossroads. On arriving there, with an air as majestic as that of an emperor, he stretched his hand towards that one of the roads which the traveller was to follow.
“ ‘That is your road, excellency, and now you cannot again mistake.’
“ ‘And here is your recompense,’ said the traveller, offering the young herdsman some small pieces of money.
“ ‘Thank you,’ said Luigi, drawing back his hand; ‘I render a service, I do not sell it.’
“ ‘Well,’ replied the traveller, who seemed used to this difference between the servility of a man of the cities and the pride of the mountaineer, ‘if you refuse wages, you will, perhaps, accept a gift.’
“ ‘Ah, yes, that is another thing.’
“ ‘Then,’ said the traveller, ‘take these two Venetian sequins and give them to your bride, to make herself a pair of earrings.’
“ ‘And then do you take this poniard,’ said the young herdsman; ‘you will not find one better carved between Albano and Civita-Castellana.’
“ ‘I accept it,’ answered the traveller, ‘but then the obligation will be on my side, for this poniard is worth more than two sequins.’
“ ‘For a dealer perhaps; but for me, who engraved it myself,