did not admit of any fair argument of the merits
of the case, and there is no leveller so effectual as a common misfortune.

The anger of Maso, though sudden and violent, the effect of a hot
temperament, had quickly subsided in a calm which more probably belonged
to his education and opinions, in all of which he was much superior to his
profligate antagonist. Contempt, therefore, soon took the place of
resentment; and though too much accustomed to rude contact with men of the
pilgrim's class to be ashamed of what had occurred, the manner strove to
forget the occurrence. It was one of those moral disturbances to which he
was scarcely less used than he was accustomed to encounter physical
contests of the elements like that in which he had lately rendered so
essential service on the Leman.

"Give me thy hand, Conrad;" he said, with the frank forgiveness which is
apt to distinguish the reconciliation of men who pass their lives amid the
violent, but sometimes ennobling, scenes of adventure and lawlessness.
"Thou hast thy humors and habits, and I have mine. If thou findest this
traffic in penances and prayers to thy fancy, follow the trade, of
Heaven's sake, and leave me and my dog to live by other means!"

"Thou ought'st to have bethought thee how much reason we pilgrims have to
prize the mastiffs of the mountain," answered Conrad, "and how likely it
was to stir my blood to see another cur devouring that which was intended
for old Uberto. Thou hast never toiled up the sides of St. Bernard, friend
Maso, loaded with the sins of a whole parish, to say nothing of thine own,
and therefore canst not know the value of these brutes, who so often
stand between us pilgrims and a grave of snow."

Il Maledetto smiled grimly, and muttered a sentence between his teeth;
for, in perfect consonance with the frank lawlessness of his own life,
there was a reckless honesty in his nature, which caused him to despise
hypocrisy as unworthy of the bold attributes of manhood.

"Have it as thou wilt, pious Conrad," he said sneeringly, "so there be
peace between us. I am, as thou knowest, an Italian, and though we of the
south seek revenge occasionally of those who wrong us, it is not often
that we do violence after giving a willing palm--I trust ye of Germany are
no less honest?"

"May the Virgin be deaf to every ave I have sworn to repeat, and the good
fathers of Loretto refuse absolution, if I think more of it! 'Twas but the
gripe of a throat