half-light, she saw a dark chasm about three
paces wide, stretching across the entrance,
and heard a murmur of water far below.
Never was there a better moat to a castle.
The opposite side of the chasm was several
feet above the place where the new-comers
stood; and they soon discerned a form
engaged in thrusting down a kind of bridge,
made of a couple of beams lashed together.  Over this, they passed; having turned round
a huge mass of rock, they found themselves
in a cave of considerable size, fitted with
a table, a bed, rude cupboards, and other
comforts, and lighted by an oil lamp swinging
from the roof. In every respect this dwelling-
place was superior to the hut to which
Floriora had been accustomed.

"It is almost as fine as my lord Bibiano's
palace," said she.

Lenk, whose life Michal had saved, some
years past, was a jovial host enough. He too
had been driven to that wild mode of life,
by an act of tyranny; and, though he did
subsist by levying tribute on the surrounding
country, was in every other respect a good
sort of character. The peasantry whom he
always spared—partly, perhaps, because they
had nothing worth taking, partly, no doubt,
from prudential motives—had never a bad
word to say against him; and instead of
assisting the police, always gave him due
warning of any movement against his liberty.
This is the reason of the long impunity which
the brigands of Wallachia enjoy. It is not
uncommon for them to live to a green old age,
and when they do close their career young,
it is generally in some skirmish. They are
rarely taken and tried.

Lenk soon made his guests quite at home;
and showed them, as an especial mark of his
confidence, a crevice in the rock, which had
formerly been open, but had gradually been
filled with earth, and through which he was
making a back-entrance to his retreat. "I
know where it comes out," said he. "It is
right on the top of the rock, at a place
inaccessible except to birds. Then I will place a
rope ladder, by which I can swing down when
I please to the glen on the other side, which I
could not reach except by an hour's walk any
other way. So if I am ever hard pressed, I
flit; and 'twill be a hard matter to catch me.
The earth all goes down the hole you have
crossed, and there is no trace of it."

Michal, on the first opportunity,
employed Lenk to go and bring a priest from
a village down in the plain, and his marriage
with Floriora was duly celebrated at the
entrance of the glen. He now began to join
Lenk in his excursions; and they lived as
comfortably as freebooters may. It would
be a mistake to suppose that Floriora pined
in this state of existence. She thought her
husband's calling justifiable and indeed
noble; and proudly compared her own
independent condition with that to which she was
to have been condemned. When Michal
remained many days absent, she felt keen
misery and regretted that a more quiet lot
had not been vouchsafed to her. But, when
she saw him, from the entrance of the cave,
coming back with a lamb on his shoulder,
and Lenk following, driving a bullock
laden with spoil, her eyes glistened and
she leaped with as much joy and exultation
to the neck of her lord, as if he had been a
chieftain of many men, returning covered with
laurels from the wars.

In due time a son was born to her, and
her cup of happiness was full. It had
been decreed that bitters should be again
mixed with it. One morning Lenk was
about to go forth when he descried bright
objects flashing far down the glen; and
his keen eye discovered that they were
the weapons of soldiers. He at once
suspected that his retreat had been
discovered, and withdrawing the bridge
announced the fact to Michal, who was standing
in smiling happiness waiting until his little
wife should succeed in unfastening the grasp
by which his boy had got hold of his black
beard. The two banditti made ready their
arms, and waited for the near approach of
the soldiery. There were about a dozen,
but they halted at a respectful distance,
and a man moved towards the entrance of
the cave and exhorted the inmates to
surrender. A scornful laugh was the answer;
but the defenders of the cave did not fire on
the herald because they saw that he was a
peasant. Soon after, the soldiers began to
pour volley after volley into the cave; they
were answered with effect. There was very
little danger for Lenk and Michal but some
of the balls rebounded into the chamber
where Floriora sat. She was therefore obliged
to take refuge in the crevice; and which had,
by this time, been completely opened.

When the combat had continued some
hours, the besiegers, who knew that their firing
had produced no effect, as the guns still
answered from within, drew off, and seemed to
consult. The new plan they hit upon has often
been adopted in that kind of warfare. Some
of them climbed the face of the hill, armed
with sharp axes, and began cutting away
the brushwood and throwing down the vast
mass of dried wood which had been
accumulating there, for years. They had resolved
to smoke out their enemies. Lenk now
applauded himself on the idea of a back
entrance; and when the bonfire was lighted
the whole party made preparations for an
escape. Being perfectly confident that there
was no danger, they went up the steep
passage laughing, reached the summit of the
rock, joked about the foolish police who were
roasting themselves that scorching day at
the entrance of the cave, coughed a little in
the smoke which filled the air, displaced
the ladder, and prepared to descend into the
valley. Lenk went down first, and sat
patiently at the bottom, steadying the ladder;