made him more prompt, for it excited a jealous distrust of his own
powers to discharge what he conceived to be a duty. Even those late events
in which his sister was so wronged had their share, too, on the decision
of a mind so resolute to be upright. Placing himself in the middle of the
path, he awaited the arrival of the party, while the monk stood quietly at
his side. When the travellers were within speaking distance, the young man
first discovered that the companions of Il Maledetto were Pippo and
Conrad. Their several rencontres had made him sufficiently acquainted with
the persons of the two latter, to enable him to recognize them at a
glance; and Sigismund began to think the undertaking in which he had
embarked more grave than he had at first imagined. Should there be a
disposition to resist, he was but one against three.

"Buon giorno, Signor Capitano," cried Maso, saluting with his cap, when
sufficiently near to those who occupied the path; "we meet often, and in
all weathers; by day and by night; on the land and on the water; in the
valley and on the mountain; in the city and on this naked rock, as
Providence wills. As many chances try men's characters, we shall come to
know each other in time!"

"Thou hast well observed, Maso; though I fear thou art a man oftener met
than easily understood."

"Signore, I am amphibious, like Nettuno here, being part of the earth and
part of the sea. As the learned say, I am not yet classed. We are repaid
for an evil night by a fine day; and the descent into Italy will be
pleasanter than we found the coming up. Shall I order honest Giacomo of
Aoste to prepare the supper, and to air the beds for the noble company
that is to follow? You will scarce do more than reach his holstery before
the young and the beautiful will begin to think of their pillows."

"Maso, I had thought thee among our party, when I left the Refuge this
morning?"

"By San Thomaso! Signore, but I had the same opinion touching yourself!"

"Thou wert early afoot it would seem, or thou couldst not have so much
preceded me?"

"Look you, brave Signor Sigismondo, for brave I know you to be, and in the
water a swimmer little less determined than gallant Nettuno there--I am a
traveller, and have much need of my time which is the larger portion of my
property. We sea-animals are sometimes rich and sometimes poor, as the
wind happens to blow, and of late I have been driven to struggle with foul
gales and troubled