n instant sense of confidence and strength. She threw herself
into the lady's arms as if she had found there a haven of refuge from
all her storms of anxiety and distress, and burst into a convulsive fit
of weeping.

The Signora Mansana said nothing, but she soothed the agitated girl
with a few gentle and caressing touches of her hand, and stood waiting
quietly till her passion had spent itself and she had regained her
self-possession. Presently Theresa was sufficiently composed to ask
where Mansana was.

"That," answered the elder lady calmly, "we none of us know."

"But we hope to find out before long," added the Major.

White as a sheet, Theresa sprang up, and looked from one to another.

"Tell me," she cried; "what is it that has happened?"

Thoughtful and composed, the older woman, who had been through so much
of storm and stress, said quietly:

"We have the same journey before us, I imagine. Let us get a carriage
to ourselves, and then we can talk matters over, and consider what is
best to be done."

The suggestion was gratefully accepted and acted upon.

CHAPTER XIII

The Brandinis had sought refuge in the house of Nina Borghi, the old
man's sister, and the mother of Luigi, and it so happened that the
train by which they fled was the same in which the hero Luigi also took
his flight. It was, however, only early the next morning, at a station,
just as Luigi was leaving the train, that they discovered each other.
The unexpected sight of them so put Luigi off his balance, he would
have passed them without speaking, but that the old man seized him by
the arm and obliged him to listen to his tale of perplexity.

In reply, Luigi merely answered shortly, "Go to my mother," and hurried
away. The first thing he did, however, on arriving at his own garrison,
was to go straight to the telegraph-office, and, in a message teeming
with excitement, forewarn his mother of the arrival of her brother. So
alarming was the tone of the telegram, that on receiving it the poor
lady, who lived by herself outside Castellamere, near Naples, was
seriously concerned, and her anxiety was not lessened by hearing from
her brother and his daughter of the danger that was threatening them as
well as her own son.

Captain Mansana had surmised that the Brandini family must have
journeyed southwards, as there were night trains only on the southern
lines. He therefore followed on their track, but, a