of the excruciating pain, and burnt away the cord that tied me.  I served my hands in the same way, and springing up, crept swiftly to where I heard the crying lad and the scuffling.  By what light the fire afforded I saw that the two men were fighting for possession.  One was full length on the ground, the other crouched over him and upon him with a knife in his teeth, but so intent upon his murderous design that he had no eyes for me.  I came quite close, made a sudden snap at the knife, and plunged it with all my force into the neck of the topmost.  It drove right through him and pierced his victim; I think they must have died at once, for except for one horrible gasping snort I heard nothing.  At the moment I felt myself caught by the ankle and heard, “Francis, Francis, it is I.”  I pulled Belviso to his feet, cut the cord at the wrist and plunged forward into the black of the wood, running downhill, as near as I could judge, towards where I knew the brook was.  We were pursued, but in a darkness so impenetrable the chances were in our favour, and we were never within a quarter-mile of being caught.  We gained the river side.  “Jump!” I cried, and dragged Belviso in after me.  We could just bottom it.  There we stayed, under a shelving bank, up to our necks in cold water until the day began to break—­not daring to move lest we should happen upon our enemies, our teeth chattering together, in a state of semi-death.  How we endured it I don’t know; but life is sweet to young men.

Looking about with great caution, I could see nothing nor hear anything of the brigands.  We crossed the river and ran as fast as we could—­ Belviso in dripping weeds and myself in my wet rags of the comedy.  By very good luck he had had some four lire in the pocket of his gown.

When we had recovered something of blood and heart by our running, I told Belviso to keep himself snug in some bushes while I went marketing with his four lire.  I had seen some herdboys on the hill and was determined to supply him with clothes proper to his sex.  I went up to the boys and offered a lire for a pair of breeches.  Half a dozen pairs were off and under my nose before I had done speaking.  I chose two pair, begged a hunch of bread into the bargain, and made them happy as kings with three lire.  I asked them my whereabouts and learned that I was four leagues from Volterra and seven from Pomarance.  I was south of Volterra, south-west of Siena, but Pomarance was on my road to Arezzo.  To Pomarance, therefore, so soon as we were clothed in the one indispensable garment of manhood, we determined to go.

To reach our haven it was necessary to cross one of the main lines of communication with Siena, that from Florence, namely, by the Val d’Elsa, or that from Rome by San Quirico and the Val d’Orcia.  We agreed that the latter was the safer for us as being further from the seat of Government, though much the more difficult.  The country was mountainous and thinly populated.  If we ran in no danger of