ysteries at Sienna;
but we have the documents at home----'

'Are they registered?'

'I believe not, Eccelenza.'

'Are they stamped?'

'I 'm afraid not, Eccelenza. The Cavallochio that defended my father
couldn't write himself, and it was one Leonardo Capprini----'

'The sausage-maker,' broke in the judge, with a smack of his lips.

'The same, Eccelenza; you knew him, perhaps?'

'Knew him well, and liked his hog's puddings much.' Justice seemed half
ashamed at this confession of a weakness, and in a more stern tone, told
him to 'Go on.'

It was not very easy for honest Vincenzio to know at what part of his
history he was to take up the thread; so he shuffled from foot to foot,
and sighed despondingly.

'I said "go on,"' said the judge, more peremptorily than before.

'I was talking of my father, Eccelenza,' said he modestly.

'No, of your good mother Fiammetta,' said the judge, rather proud of the
accuracy with which he retained the family history.

'She was my step-mother,' interposed Vincenzio humbly.

'Blockheads all!' broke in old Gaetana, with a hearty laugh.

'Silence!' cried the gendarmes, as, with their muskets dropped to the
ground, they made the chamber ring again, while the judge, turning a
glance of darkening anger on the speaker, said: 'Who is this old woman?'

'Let _me_ tell him. Let myself speak,' cried Gaetana, pressing forward,
while the gendarmes, with their instinct as to coming peril, prudently
held her back.

'So then,' said the judge, in reply to a whisper of one of his
assistants, 'she is the principal delinquent'; and referring to the
written charge before him, read out: 'An infuriated woman, who presided
over the drum.'

'They smashed it, the thieves!' cried Gaetana; 'they smashed my drum;
but, _per Dio_, I beat a roll on their own skulls that astonished them!
They 'll not deny that I gave them an ear for music' And the old hag
laughed loud at her savage jest.

Again was silence commanded, and after some trouble obtained; and
the judge, whose perceptions were evidently disturbed by these
interruptions, betook himself to the pages of the indictment, to refresh
his mind on the case. Muttering to himself the lines, he came to the
words, 'and with a formidable weapon, of solid wood, with the use of
which long habit had rendered her familiar, and in this wise dangerous,
she, the aforesaid Gaetana, struck, beat, battered, and belaboured----'

'Didn't I!' broke in the hag.

Wha