d altogether into the thickest of the wood; and his two companions
followed his example with great ease, the valet-de-chambre being hurt in
the leg, and the stranger so much exhausted by the wounds he had received
before Renaldo's interposition, that, when the young gentleman approached
to congratulate him on the defeat of the robbers, he, in advancing to
embrace his deliverer, dropped down motionless on the grass.

The Count, with that warmth of sympathy and benevolence which was natural
to his heart, lifted up the wounded cavalier in his arms, and carried him
to the chaise, in which he was deposited, while the valet-de-chambre
reloaded his pistols, and prepared for a second attack, as they did not
doubt that the banditti would return with a reinforcement. However,
before they reappeared, Renaldo's driver disengaged him from the wood,
and in less than a quarter of an hour they arrived at a village, where
they halted for assistance to the stranger, who, though still alive, had
not recovered the use of his senses.

After he was undressed, and laid in a warm bed, a surgeon examined his
body, and found a wound in his neck by a sword, and another in his right
side, occasioned by a pistol-shot; so that his prognostic was very
dubious. Meanwhile, he applied proper dressings to both; and, in half an
hour after this administration, the gentleman gave some tokens of
perception. He looked around him with a wildness of fury in his aspect,
as if he had thought himself in the hands of the robbers by whom he had
been attacked. But, when he saw the assiduity with which the bystanders
exerted themselves in his behalf, one raising his head from the pillow,
while another exhorted him to swallow a little wine which was warmed for
the purpose; when he beheld the sympathising looks of all present, and
heard himself accosted in the most cordial terms by the person whom he
recollected as his deliverer, all the severity vanished from his
countenance; he took Renaldo's hand, and pressed it to his lips; and,
while the tears gushed from his eyes, "Praised be God," said he, "that
virtue and generosity are still to be found among the sons of men."

Everybody in the apartment was affected by this exclamation; and Melvil,
above all the rest, felt such emotions as he could scarcely restrain. He
entreated the gentleman to believe himself in the midst of such friends
as would effectually secure him from all violence and mortification; he
conjured