was crowded with the country people in their bright-coloured costumes
chaffering over their produce. I looked above them to the tall campanile
of the church which filled one side of the square. I receded a step and
adjusted my gun on the ledge of the window to my satisfaction. I then
looked down the street in which the prison was situated, and which
debouched on the square, and awaited events. At ten minutes past ten I
saw the soldiers at the door of the prison form up, and then I knew that
the twenty prisoners of whom they formed the escort were starting; but
the moment they began to move I fired at the big bell in the campanile,
which responded with a loud clang. All the people in the square looked
up. As the prisoners entered the square, which they had begun to cross
in its whole breadth, I fired again and again. The bell banged twice,
and the people began to buzz about. "Now," I thought, "I must let the
old bell have it." By the time five more balls had struck the bell
with a resounding din the whole square was in commotion. A miracle was
evidently in progress or the campanile was bewitched. People began
to run hither and thither; all the soldiers forming the escort gaped
open-mouthed at the steeple as the clangour continued. As soon as the
last shot had been fired I looked down into the square and saw all this,
and I saw that the prisoners were attempting to escape, and in more
than one instance had succeeded, for the soldiers began to scatter in
pursuit, and the country people to form themselves into impeding crowds
as though by accident; but nowhere could I see Valeria. When I was
quite sure she had escaped I went down and joined the crowd. I saw three
prisoners captured and brought back, and when I asked the officer in
command how many had escaped he said three--Croppo's wife, the priest,
and another.

When I met my cavalry friends at dinner that evening it was amusing to
hear them speculate upon the remarkable occurrence which had, in fact,
upset the wits of the whole town. Priests and vergers and sacristans
had visited the campanile, and one of them had brought away a flattened
piece of lead, which looked as if it might have been a bullet; but the
suggestion that eight bullets could have hit the bell in succession
without anybody hearing a sound was treated with ridicule. I believe the
bell was subsequently exorcised with holy water. I was afraid to remain
with the regiment with my air-gun after this, lest som