“ ‘Good!’ said the sentry, ‘you may now go on.’

“Luigi and Teresa again set forward; as they went on Teresa clung tremblingly to her lover at the sight of weapons and the glistening of carbines through the trees. The retreat of Rocca Bianca was at the top of a small mountain, which no doubt in former days had been a volcano⁠—an extinct volcano before the days when Remus and Romulus had deserted Alba to come and found the city of Rome.

“Teresa and Luigi reached the summit, and all at once found themselves in the presence of twenty bandits.

“ ‘Here is a young man who seeks and wishes to speak to you,’ said the sentinel.

“ ‘What has he to say?’ inquired the young man who was in command in the chief’s absence.

“ ‘I wish to say that I am tired of a shepherd’s life,’ was Vampa’s reply.