ance was superfluous to one so
fertile in resources. He turned with graceful promptitude upon the
savage Cretans, and before their powerful steeds could measure the
short intervening distance, his sword was firmly set between his
teeth, and two pistols appeared with magical abruptness in his grasp.
Levelled by an eye which never failed, these weapons lodged a bullet
in the breast of each approaching Greek. The colossal riders reeled in
their saddles; their sabres quivered in their weakened grasp, and
reclining for support upon the necks of their startled horses, they
successively passed us, and turned the angle beyond which their chief
had disappeared. Colonna now threw down his pistols, and exclaimed
exultingly, "Now is the crowning hour, my Angelo! follow me, and you
shall find the scaly monster of my dream caught in a trap from which
no human power can free him."

I rode by his side in wondering anticipation, and when we had passed
the angle, I beheld a scene which still remains engraven on my memory.
The defile here expanded into an irregular oval, the extremity of
which was blocked up by a dense and impervious mass of young beech and
poplar, rising above thrice the height of a tall man, and levelled
that morning by the ponderous axe of the indefatigable Colonna. The
courser of Barozzo had plunged deep into the leafy labyrinth, and the
unhorsed governor, entangled by his velvet drapery, was endeavouring
to extricate himself from the forked and intersecting branches, while
the horses of the Greeks stood panting in the shade, near the bleeding
bodies of their fallen masters, and the noble brutes snorted with
horror, and shook in every joint, as with lowered necks and flaming
eyes, they snuffed the blood of the expiring wretches.

As we approached the governor, he succeeded in releasing himself by
cutting his rich mantle into shreds with his dagger. Stepping out of
his leafy toils, he stood before us like a wild beast caught in a
hunter's trap, foaming, furious, and breathless, but evidently
dismayed by the sudden and irremediable loss of his armed followers.
Divested of the drapery which had served the double purpose of
concealment and display, we observed that he was accoutred in back and
breast proof armour, of the light steel scales I have before
described. He looked the very serpent of Colonna's dream, and the
malignant scowl of his small and snaky eyes gave singular force to the
resemblance. His generous enemy