dream had scared
and worried him. He could not fall asleep again; his senses were in
such a tumult. Ere long he again plainly heard Beresynth's croaking
voice; and Pietro said with a full clear tone: "Have done; thou seest
he is armed and warned; he will not trust himself to sleep again."

"We must overpower him then;" screamed the little one: "now that he
has recognized us, we are quite undone every way. The pious slave will
go and give us up to the inquisition tomorrow; and the pious rabble
will then be at hand in a trice with their faggots and flames."

Through the chink in the door he perceived the two magicians. He again
rusht in with his sword drawn, and again found two decrepit old men
lying on the ground and whining their prayers. Enraged at the cheating
forms, he seized them in his arms and wrestled violently with them;
they defended themselves desperately; it was now Pietro, now the
hermit, one moment the imp Beresynth, the next a crippled old monk.

After much screaming and raving, cursing and wailing, he at last
succeeded in thrusting them out of the cell, which he then carefully
fastened. He now heard a whining without and entreaties and groans,
mixt up with the whispering of many voices, and with songs and yells;
afterward rain and wind seemed to be stirring, and a storm afar off
rolled athwart the multitudinous sound. Stunned at length by all this,
Antonio fell asleep, leaning on his sword as he sat before the
crucifix; and when the cold morning breeze awakened him, he found
himself on the highest peak of a narrow ridge in the midst of a thick
forest, and thought he heard bursts of scornful laughter behind him.

It was at the peril of his life that he climbed down the steep
precipice, tearing his clothes, and wounding his face and hands and
feet. He had then to wander wearisomely through the forest: there was
not a soul to call to, not a hut to be discovered far around, often as
he mounted the hights to explore. When it was almost night, faint with
fatigue, hunger, and exhaustion, he fell in with an old collier who
refresht him in his little hut. He learnt that he must be some twelve
miles and upward from the hermitage he had met with the evening
before. It was only late on the following day that, somewhat
strengthened and cheered, he could pursue his journey toward Florence.

* * * * *

Antonio had returned to Florence for the sake of visiting his kindred
and his pat