dez. Whilst I was
wondering how it came there without the owner, and was looking about for
him, I spied him lying behind a boulder. At first I thought he was
asleep, but on looking again, I saw he didn't lie like a sleeping man,
and I concluded he was dead. Had it been any one but he, I should have
lifted him up; but it being very well known that we were no friends, I
own I was afraid to do so. I thought it better not to meddle with him at
all. However, if he is alive, as you say, perhaps he can tell himself
who wounded him."

"To be sure he can," returned the officer; "he says it's you!"

"_Perduto son' io!_--Then I am lost!" exclaimed Ripa; who, on being
brought before the authorities, persisted in the same story; adding,
that so far from seeking Mendez, he had particularly wished to avoid
him, and that that was the reason he had started so late; for he had
been warned that the Spaniard was his enemy, and he apprehended that if
they met alone some collision might ensue.

It appeared, however, that he had consumed much more time on the road
than could be fairly accounted for; for two or three people had met him
on the way before he reached Forni; and then Antonio Guerra could speak
as to the exact hour of his passing. This discrepancy he attempted to
explain by saying, that after seeing Mendez on the ground, dead--as he
believed--he had been so agitated and alarmed that he did not like to
present himself at Malfi's house, lest he should excite observation. He
had also spent some time in deliberating whether or not he should
mention what he had seen; and he had made up his mind to do so on his
arrival, but was deterred by every body's asking him, when he entered
the room, what he had done with Mendez--a question that seemed to imply
a suspicion against himself.

This tale, of course, was not believed: indeed his whole demeanor on the
night in question tended strongly to his condemnation; added to which,
Malfi, who had been his friend, testified that not only had Ripa
betrayed all the confusion of guilt during the walk from his house to
Forni, but that having hold of his arm, he had distinctly felt him
tremble as they passed the spot where Mendez was subsequently
discovered.

With regard to Mendez himself, it appeared that when found he was in a
state of insensibility, and he was still too weak to give evidence or
enter into any particulars; but when, under proper remedies, he had
recovered his senses, Faustina Mal