Page:In Maremma, by Ouida (vol 3).djvu/228

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IN MAREMMA.

pine-wood that by land connects Telamone and Orbetello, he for form's sake made the matter known to a brigadier of carabineers who was his friend, and, to have all matters right in form, his friend sent two mounted guards, with their carbines slung beside them and their cutlasses at their side, to go beside the ox-cart into the town, and give the captive up to the prison authorities.

Thence they went on again under the pines by the side of the blue glancing sea, and she lay, almost senseless, on the straw at the bottom of the waggon.

They met old Andreino on the coast. He held up his hands and cried aloud:

'Dear Lord! Did I not always know that she would meet her end like that! The saints be praised she did not get my sweet Nandino!'

At Orbetello they threw her into prison after hearing how she had hidden a dead body in the closed Etruscan tomb.

She did not understand of what they accused her. She thought vaguely that they missed the gold things stolen by Saturnino, and that they attributed the theft to her. But it was not clear to her; neither could she comprehend why