The man replied, that on a very dark and stormy night, about a week
before, two persons had come to the cottage, and desired shelter. That
they were unattended; but seemed to be persons of consequence in
disguise. That they paid very liberally for what they had; and that
they departed from the cottage a few hours before the arrival of the
duke. The duke enquired concerning the course they had taken, and having
received information, remounted his horse, and set forward in pursuit.
The road lay for several leagues through the forest, and the darkness,
and the probability of encountering banditti, made the journey
dangerous. About the break of day they quitted the forest, and entered
upon a wild and mountainous country, in which they travelled some
miles without perceiving a hut, or a human being. No vestige of
cultivation appeared, and no sounds reached them but those of their
horses feet, and the roaring of the winds through the deep forests
that overhung the mountains. The pursuit was uncertain, but the duke
resolved to persevere.
They came at length to a cottage, where he repeated his enquiries, and
learned to his satisfaction that two persons, such as he described,
had stopped there for refreshment about two hours before. He found it
now necessary to stop for the same purpose. Bread and milk, the only
provisions of the place, were set before him, and his attendants would
have been well contented, had there been sufficient of this homely
fare to have satisfied their hunger.
Having dispatched an hasty meal, they again set forward in the way
pointed out to them as the route of the fugitives. The country
assumed a more civilized aspect. Corn, vineyards, olives, and groves
of mulberry-trees adorned the hills. The vallies, luxuriant in shade,
were frequently embellished by the windings of a lucid stream, and
diversified by clusters of half-seen cottages. Here the rising turrets
of a monastery appeared above the thick trees with which they were
surrounded; and there the savage wilds the travellers had passed,
formed a bold and picturesque background to the scene.
To the questions put by the duke to the several persons he met, he
received answers that encouraged him to proceed. At noon he halted at
a village to refresh himself and his people. He could gain no
intelligence of Julia, and was perplexed which way to chuse; but
determined at length to pursue the road he was then in, and
accordingly again set forward. He travelled several miles without
meeting any person who could give the necessary information, and began
to despair of success.
The lengthened shadows of the mountains, and
the fading light gave signals of declining day; when having gained the
summit of a high hill, he observed two persons travelling on horseback
in the plains below. On one of them he distinguished the habiliments
of a woman; and in her air he thought he discovered that of Julia.
While he stood attentively surveying them, they looked towards the
hill, when, as if urged by a sudden impulse of terror, they set off on
full speed over the plains. The duke had no doubt that these were the
persons he sought; and he, therefore, ordered some of his people to
pursue them, and pushed his horse into a full gallop. Before he
reached the plains, the fugitives, winding round an abrupt hill, were
lost to his view. The duke continued his course, and his people, who
were a considerable way before him, at length reached the hill, behind
which the two persons had disappeared. No traces of them were to be
seen, and they entered a narrow defile between two ranges of high and
savage mountains; on the right of which a rapid stream rolled along,
and broke with its deep resounding murmurs the solemn silence of the
place.