polenta, and another of carp and olives, which
never seemed to distress their sense of table
etiquette.

"There," said Angelo, pointing with a dripping
fork to a spot on the map. " There's where
Menotti's column should be now."

"You know nothing about it," interrupted
Cesare. " Menotti will be wherever his father
is, and he must be far more to the eastward."

"See! you've spilled the salt on it, unlucky
boy," said Angelo to the younger lad; " throw
a pinch over your shoulder, left or right, I
forget which, and say-— what is it they say to
conjure away evil?"

"A Credo, isn't it?" cried the boy, eagerly;
and now a loud roar of laughter from the others
covered him with shame and confusion.

"I always said you were too good for us,
Carlino mio," said Angelo; " the frati who
brought you up, instilled principles that will
have a sore time of it, when it comes to robbing
henroosts and other little licences of campaigning
life. But here comes our noble host, Don
Vincenzio."

"Let there be no 'Dons' between us,
comrades," cried I, taking my place. " We will
take up our old names when we resume clean
linen after the war; till then, perfect equality
between us."

"By the keys of St. Peter! this is very strange
doctrine," said Angelo, who was now heated
with wine, " and not my reading of the oracle
at all. I thought that it was then the equality
was to begin in earnest."

"What do you mean by equality under a
monarchy? Is it when we place the crown on
the King's head on the Capitol," cried I, "that
we are to inaugurate the doctrines of a republic?"

"Viva Garibaldi!" shouted the other, and his
friends took up the cry; and we finished the
dispute with three hearty cheers.

"Ma, signori! signori mei!" exclaimed the
fattore, coming in with clasped hands, and a
face pale with terror. " For the Virgin's sake!
have some caution. It is true we are all for
liberty in our village-— all, every man of us
—- but there are three guardie della siccurezza in
the place, who are capable of arresting us all,
and sending us to prison."

An honest burst of laughter at this frank
confession of village patriotism set us all in good
humour at once. Cesare, however, seemed to
brood over the fattore's words; for he turned to
me some time after, and said, in a low whisper,
"Is it not pitiable to think what bad government
has made of this people? See, even yet,
how the old terror lingers in their veins."

"Will your Excellency please to remember,"
broke in Angelo, whose quick ear caught
everything, " that peasants are not soldiers, and
that it is no more their business to cut throats,
then ours to cut barley. If they will only give
us food, we will do the fighting."

"I hope we shall require no such sacrifice
from them," replied Cesare; " I trust we mean
to pay as we go."

"Of course we do, in Boni de Tresorio; bonds
on the Vatican, payable at sight. Bills at a
short date, endorsed by Cardinal Antonelli," said
Angelo.

"There's the dawn about to break, signori,"
said the fattore, timidly; " if you mean to get
away without notice, now's your time."

"We want to reach Spedale by the shortest
road, can you find us a guide?"

"His Excellency Don Vincenzio knows the
country better than any of us," was the answer.

III. THE MARCH WITH THE "PICCIOTTI."

WE started by three o'clock, and at eight,
covered something like seventeen miles of
ground; not bad marching for men with little
practice of walking, carrying heavy knapsacks,
and over a mountain track. For the first hour
or two we talked a good deal, less on the third,
scarcely at all on the fourth, and the fifth we
passed in total silence.

"Here's Spedale at last!" cried Angelo, with
a hoarse voice, for he was weary, and very
thirsty to boot. " We breakfast here, don't
we?"

Cesare gave a shrug that might mean assent,
or anything else.

"Who is to pay for it?" cried Carlino,
laughingly.

"The Dukes, who else?" replied the other.
"It is their day now, it may be ours
tomorrow."

"Does not all this make you greatly in love
with Communism?" asked Cesare of me, with
a quiet but severe irony in his tone.

"This is no Communism!" cried Angelo,
hastily; "had it been, I'd have changed my
rusty old flint-lock for that breech-loader of
yours, long ago; or given my spit here for
that gorgeous piece of ' virtù' his Excellency
sports as a weapon, and which, if he take a
friend's advice, he'll not wear when he comes
up with the Picciotti."

"An omelette, four fowls, half of a lamb or
a kid, she is not sure which, a polenta of maize,
and fruit at will; there's a bill of fare for you!"
cried Carlino, coming out of a very poor-looking
hut, with a withered bough over the door.

"And how came such a glut of delicacies
here?" asked I.

"Nullo had ordered them for himself and
his staff; and, it seems, the General sent him on
another road, and they remain to regale us
hungry men."

"Let them serve the meal under this ilex-
tree," said Angelo. " We shall be eaten by
zanzari if we venture into the miserable den;
and, Carlino, see that the old hag does not water
the wine; tell her we'll ' lengthen it' for
ourselves."

"Tell me if these are not troops at drill in
that valley, yonder?" asked Cesare, as he
handed me his glass.

"Yes. I can see something like two hundred
and fifty or three hundred under arms, but they
look mere boys, and are half naked besides."

"Nullo's corps d'elite, as I live!" cried