she recovered at length in the robber's embrace, she so struggled to escape from him, that they had both well nigh fallen from the horse. His mild persuasive voice, his vows and assurances that to her he meant nothing but good, and the utter impossibility of doing anything to avert her fate, whatever it might be, at length tranquillized her, and she rode on with him in the silence of woe and despair, and that agonizing sentiment that must accompany the disclosure that the being who has warmed the heart to love, is the object of the world's detestation, and cannot be loved without risking one's happiness here and hereafter.

Night had now closed in, but the broad bright moon shone on the robbers' mountain paths, which they pursued for many hours, until they crossed the lofty and extended chain, and reached a secluded village on the borders of a far spreading and apparently desolate level. Here they seemed on a perfectly good understanding with the inhabitants, who were all shepherds and goatherds, and Mangone not only procured refreshments for her, which she refused to partake of, but allowed Nicoletta time for that repose, of which she stood in need.

When they continued their journey the day dawned, and the wondering maiden found that she was crossing a wide plain bounded semicircularly by mountains, and edged afar off, by the blue sea. Nothing could well be wilder or more solitary than these regions. A vast heath, rich in brushwood and shrubs, and in dense macchioni, or

thickets of gigantic wild myrtle, spread before her as far as the eye could reach; but no villages, not a house could she see, and the only living creatures there, were large herds of savage-looking buffaloes that ranged at will the lords of the wild. As the sun rose higher and dissipated the vapours, so dense in these southern parts on a hot morning of summer, she saw indeed as her fearful eye glanced backward, the white walls of a large town, and some villages in the mountains or at their feet; but they were distant, and all unknown to her, whose travels from her sequestered home had never extended further than the shrine of the Madonna, where in an evil moment she had attracted the eyes of Mangone.

The robbers went on at a rapid pace; the mountains on the opposite side of the plain which had seemed unapproachably remote, gradually became higher, bolder and nearer to the eye; a rapid river was crossed by a difficult ferry kept by men, evidently the comrades of Mangone's troop, and the party plunged into a deep thick wood. They had advanced for some time in this mysterious neighbourhood, when Nicoletta's ears were assailed by a tremendous barking of dogs.

"Our faithful friends keep good watch over our woodland homes, where we shall presently be, and where thou shalt be as queen!" said the robber-chief, who had not failed at frequent intervals of the hurried journey, to speak kindly and encouragingly to his prize, and to endeavour to reconcile her to her destiny.

And in a few minutes having passed a strange looking edifice, and some ranged columns which seemed to the peasant girl like skeletons of some giant's abode, she found herself in the midst of a group of cabins and huts, that formed a little hamlet in the depth of the wood, where no eye could see them, until so near that the hand might almost touch them. A number of ferocious-looking men and some women and children came out to welcome the returning troop and their chief Mangone, who with briefer courtesy to them than he usually practised, lifted Nicoletta from the horse, and carried her terrified and almost lifeless as she was, into the largest and best of these sylvan abodes.

The interior of this cabin was far different from anything she had ever seen; and when with timid eyes she had glanced over the bright arms, and the wolf skins that hung on its walls; on the huge chests-rich garments, inlaid cuirasses, and massive plate, piled with picturesque confusion in open recesses or in the corners of the room, she threw herself on its earthen floor, and wept for her own poor cottage home among the mountains of Atripalda. Mangone seeing he laboured in vain to cheer her drooping spirits and dissipate her alarm, after he had with difficulty prevailed upon her to take some goat's milk and bread, left her to repose. He did not again intrude upon her for some hours; but when he did, instead of finding her in the enjoyment of restoring and tranquil sleep, or refreshed by

its genial effects, he found his beautiful prize burning with a tremendous fever, and almost delirious.

Every assistance that he, aided by an old woman of the lawless colony, to which she was sole medical practitioner, could bestow, was lavished on the young Nicoletta; but in spite of all this, which was, perhaps, not always of the most judicious nature, she continued to suffer from the fever brought on by the excitement of the mind, and the fatigues of the rapid journey: nor was it until several days had elapsed, that she was so far convalescent as to leave the couch of wolf and sheep skin that her dreaded host had affectionately prepared for her. On the evening of that day that she felt so far recovered, as she was sitting alone in the robber's cabin, wondering at the wealth it contained, and almost forgetting by what unlawful means that wealth had been acquired, Mangone appeared suddenly before her, humanized by the feeling of love, and with the same expression of countenance, the same attitude, and the same sweet tones of voice with which he had captivated her simple heart in the tarantella, at the Monte degli Angioli. She had been sensible of his tender, unwearying care, during her illness-she had caught his sighs on her lip-she had seen the tears in his eyes, which had never glanced with their fatal ferocity on her, or on any one in her presence-and now, uninformed as she was, wanting of that strong moral feeling which only education can give, and which,

even in the educated, cannot always subdue the passion of love for an unworthy object, it is not surprising if her heart softened towards her captor, and she regarded with less horror her separation from her family and friends— the condition he proposed to her of becoming a robber's bride. Indeed, it ought to be remembered that the estimation in which the fuorusciti, or banditti, of the kingdom of Naples were generally held by the peasantry, differed essentially from our notions on the subject. The country and the government were in the hands of foreign masters the oppressive Spaniards; the Barons exercised their feudal tyrannies with impunity; and the peasants, too poor to attract the depredators, saw them with malignant, but natural satisfaction, despoil their common oppressors. This was the case in all countries in the dark days of anarchy, misgovernment, and oppression; and, like Robin Hood and his freebooters of old Sherwood, the Italian bandits were frequently the objects of popular admiration and sympathy. Mangone was reported to have disgraced his bold calling, by the perpetration of horrid cruelties-this it was that made Nicoletta so shudder at his name, and the evidences of them now smothered for ever her growing love, and saved her from participating in his lawless life.

But

That night, being possessed with the restlessness which fever generally leaves, and which was increased by her peculiar situation, the young peasant opened the door of the cabin, and remarking that the whole of