Previous - next
closed, in order to keep back the people. A room was assigned us,
and he ordered the waiters to bring supper, and make such
accommodation as we required for repose. In a few moments three men
entered with mattresses upon their shoulders. What was our surprise
to see that only one of them was a servant of the inn; the other two
were our acquaintance. We pretended to assist them in placing the
beds, and had time to recognise and give each other the hand of
fellowship and sympathy. It was too much; the tears started to our
eyes. Ah! how trying was it to us all, not to be allowed the sad
satisfaction even of shedding them in a last embrace.
The commissaries were not aware of the circumstance; but I had
reason to think that one of the guards saw into the affair, just as
the good Dario grasped me by the hand. He was a Venetian; he fixed
his eyes upon us both; he turned pale; appeared in the act of making
an alarm, then turned away his eyes, as if pretending not to see us.
If he felt not assured that they were indeed our friends, he must
have believed them to be some waiters with whom we were acquainted.
CHAPTER LVI.
The next morning we left Udine by dawn of day. The affectionate
Dario was already in the street, wrapped in his mantle; he beckoned
to us and followed us a long way. A coach also continued at some
little distance from us for several miles. Some one waved a
handkerchief from it, till it turned back; who could it have been?
We had our own conjectures on the subject. May Heaven protect those
generous spirits that thus cease not to love, and express their love
for the unfortunate. I had the more reason to prize them from the
fact of having met with cowards, who, not content with denying me,
thought to benefit themselves by calumniating their once fortunate
FRIEND. These cases, however, were rare, while those of the former,
to the honour of the human character, were numerous.
I had supposed that the warm sympathy expressed for us in Italy
would cease when we entered on a foreign soil. But I was deceived;
the good man is ever the fellow-countryman of the unhappy! When
traversing Illyrian and German ground, it was the same as in our own
country. There was the same general lamentation at our fate; "Arme
herren!" poor gentlemen, was on the lips of all.
Sometimes, on entering another district, our escort was compelled to
stop in order to decide in what part to take up our quarters. The
people would then gather round us, and we heard exclamations, and
other expressions of commiseration, which evidently came from the
heart. These proofs of popular feeling were still more gratifying
to me, than such as I had met with from my own countrymen. The
consolation which was thus afforded me, helped to soothe the bitter
indignation I then felt against those whom I esteemed my enemies.
Yet, possibly, I reflected, if we were brought more nearly
Previous - next