“What is that?” asked the grand inquisitor.

“A handkerchief.”

“For what purpose?”

“To wipe my nose.”

“Why did you tell me that you were poor?  It is only milords who wipe their noses with handkerchiefs.  Take off the box which you have behind your back.  Good!  Open it!”

My box contained some plants, a book, a knife, a little package of arsenic, a gourd nearly empty, and the remnants of my breakfast, which kindled a look of covetousness in the eyes of Mrs. Simons.  I had the assurance to offer them to her before my baggage changed masters.  She accepted greedily, and began to devour the bread and meat.  To my great astonishment, this act of gluttony scandalized our robbers, who murmured among themselves the word “Schismatic:”  The monk made half a dozen signs of the cross, according to the rite of the Greek Church.

“You must have a watch,” said the brigand:  “put it with the rest.”

I gave up my silver watch, a hereditary toy of the weight of four ounces.  The villains passed it from hand to hand, and thought it very beautiful.  I was in hopes that admiration, which makes men better, would dispose them to restore me something, and I begged their chief to let me have my tin box.  He imposed silence upon me roughly.  “At least,” said I, “give me back two crowns for my return to the city!” He answered with a sardonic smile, “You will not have need of them.”

The turn of Mrs. Simons had come.  Before putting her hand in her pocket, she warned our conquerors in the language of her fathers.  The English is one of those rare idioms which one can speak with a mouth full.  “Reflect well on what you are going to do,” said she, in a menacing tone.  “I am an Englishwoman, and English subjects are inviolable in all the countries of the world.  What you will take from me will serve you little, and will cost you dear.  England will avenge me, and you will all be hanged, to say the least.  Now if you wish my money, you have only to speak; but it will burn your fingers:  it is English money!”

“What does she say?” asked the spokesman of the brigands.

Dimitri answered, “She says that she is English.”

“So much the better!  All the English are rich.  Tell her to do as you have done.”

The poor lady emptied on the sand a purse, which contained twelve sovereigns.  As her watch was not in sight, and as they made no show of searching us, she kept it.  The clemency of the conquerors left her her pocket-handkerchief.

Mary Ann threw down her watch, with a whole bunch of charms against the evil eye.  She cast before her, by a movement full of mute grace, a shagreen bag, which she carried in her belt.  The brigand opened it with the eagerness of a custom-house officer.  He drew from it a little English dressing-case, a vial of English salts, a box of pastilles of English mint, and a hundred and some odd francs in English money.