ll's voice announced with great dignity of tone. The doctor,
entreated not to walk about in the dark, sank down to the ground, too.
The two prisoners of Sotillo, with their heads nearly touching, began to
exchange confidences.

"Yes," the doctor related in a low tone to Captain Mitchell's vehement
curiosity, "we have been nabbed in old Viola's place. It seems that one
of their pickets, commanded by an officer, pushed as far as the town
gate. They had orders not to enter, but to bring along every soul they
could find on the plain. We had been talking in there with the door
open, and no doubt they saw the glimmer of our light. They must have
been making their approaches for some time. The engineer laid himself
on a bench in a recess by the fire-place, and I went upstairs to have a
look. I hadn't heard any sound from there for a long time. Old Viola,
as soon as he saw me come up, lifted his arm for silence. I stole in
on tiptoe. By Jove, his wife was lying down and had gone to sleep. The
woman had actually dropped off to sleep! 'Senor Doctor,' Viola whispers
to me, 'it looks as if her oppression was going to get better.' 'Yes,'
I said, very much surprised; 'your wife is a wonderful woman, Giorgio.'
Just then a shot was fired in the kitchen, which made us jump and cower
as if at a thunder-clap. It seems that the party of soldiers had stolen
quite close up, and one of them had crept up to the door. He looked in,
thought there was no one there, and, holding his rifle ready, entered
quietly. The chief told me that he had just closed his eyes for a
moment. When he opened them, he saw the man already in the middle of
the room peering into the dark corners. The chief was so startled that,
without thinking, he made one leap from the recess right out in front
of the fireplace. The soldier, no less startled, up with his rifle
and pulls the trigger, deafening and singeing the engineer, but in his
flurry missing him completely. But, look what happens! At the noise of
the report the sleeping woman sat up, as if moved by a spring, with a
shriek, 'The children, Gian' Battista! Save the children!' I have it in
my ears now. It was the truest cry of distress I ever heard. I stood as
if paralyzed, but the old husband ran across to the bedside, stretching
out his hands. She clung to them! I could see her eyes go glazed; the
old fellow lowered her down on the pillows and then looked round at me.
She was dead! All this took less than five minute