or. "Who are below?"

"Below?"

"In the coach?"

"Italians."

"Women?"

"No, all men. Two priests, three shop-keeper-looking persons, and
a soldier."

"Ah! Why, we ought to be comparatively safe."

"Oh, our number is not any thing. The country is in a state of
anarchy. Miserable devils of half-starved Italians swarm along the
road, and they will try to make hay while the sun shines. I have no
doubt we will be stopped half a dozen times before we get to Bologna."

"I should think," said the Senator, indignantly, "that if these chaps
undertake to govern the country--these republican chaps--they had
ought to govern it. What kind of a way is this to leave helpless
travellers at the mercy of cut-throats and assassins?"

"They think," said Buttons, "that their first duty is to secure
independence, and after that they will promote order."

"The Florentines are a fine people--a people of remarkable cuteness
and penetration; but it seems to me that they are taking things easy
as far as fighting is concerned. They don't send their soldiers to
the war, do they?"

"Well, no, I suppose they think their army may be needed nearer home.
The Grand Duke has long arms yet; and knows how to bribe."

By this time they were among the mountain forests where the scenery
was grander, the air cooler, the sky darker, than before. It was late
in the day, and every mile increased the wildness of the landscape and
the thickness of the gloom. Further and further, on they went till at
least they came to a winding-place where the road ended at a gully over
which there was a bridge. On the bridge was a barricade. They did not
see it until they had made a turn where the road wound, where at once
the scene burst on their view.

The leaders reared, the postillions swore, the driver snapped his whip
furiously. The passengers in "coupe," "rotonde," and "interieure"
popped out their heads, the passengers on the "banquette" stared,
until at last, just as the postillions were dismounting to reconnoitre,
twelve figures rose up from behind the barricade, indistinct in the
gloom, and bringing their rifles to their shoulders took aim.

The driver yelled, the postillions shouted, the passengers shrieked.
The three men in the banquette prepared for a fight. Suddenly a loud
voice was heard from behind. They looked. A number of men stood there,
and several more were leaping out from the thick woods on the right.
They were surrounded. At length one of