Here the robber paused in his recital, overpowered by his emotions.  Great drops of sweat stood on his forehead; he panted rather than breathed; his brawny bosom rose and fell like the waves of a troubled sea.  When he had become a little calm, he continued his recital.

I was not long in finding a shepherd, said he.  I ran with the rapidity of a deer, eager, if possible, to get back before what I dreaded might take place.  I had left my companions far behind, and I rejoined them before they had reached one-half the distance I had made.  I hurried them back to the place where we had left the captain.  As we approached, I beheld him seated by the side of Rosetta.  His triumphant look, and the desolate condition of the unfortunate girl, left me no doubt of her fate.  I know not how I restrained my fury.

It was with extreme difficulty, and by guiding her hand, that she was made to trace a few characters, requesting her father to send three hundred dollars as her ransom.  The letter was despatched by the shepherd.  When he was gone, the chief turned sternly to me:  “You have set an example,” said he, “of mutiny and self-will, which if indulged would be ruinous to the troop.  Had I treated you as our laws require, this bullet would have been driven through your brain.  But you are an old friend; I have borne patiently with your fury and your folly; I have even protected you from a foolish passion that would have unmanned you.  As to this girl, the laws of our association must have their course.”  So saying, he gave his commands, lots were drawn, and the helpless girl was abandoned to the troop.

Here the robber paused again, panting with fury and it was some moments before he could resume his story.

Hell, said he, was raging in my heart.  I beheld the impossibility of avenging myself, and I felt that, according to the articles in which we stood bound to one another, the captain was in the right.  I rushed with frenzy from the place.  I threw myself upon the earth; tore up the grass with my hands, and beat my head, and gnashed my teeth in agony and rage.  When at length I returned, I beheld the wretched victim, pale, dishevelled; her dress torn and disordered.  An emotion of pity for a moment subdued my fiercer feelings.  I bore her to the foot of a tree, and leaned her gently against it.  I took my gourd, which was filled with wine, and applying it to her lips, endeavored to make her swallow a little.  To what a condition was she recovered!  She, whom I had once seen the pride of Frosinone, who but a short time before I had beheld sporting in her father’s vineyard, so fresh and beautiful and happy!  Her teeth were clenched; her eyes fixed on the ground; her form without motion, and in a state of absolute insensibility.  I hung over her in an agony of recollection of all that she had been, and of anguish at what I now beheld her.  I darted round a look of horror at my companions, who seemed like so many fiends exulting in the downfall of an angel, and I felt a horror at myself for being their accomplice.