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Like the boy who drives his little Indian pigs to the fold, whose

obstinacy impels them divers ways, and thus obliges him first to

apply to one and then to another till he can succeed in penning

them all, so are we obliged to play the same game with the

personages of our story. Having secured Lucy, we ran to Don

Roderick. Him we now quit to give an account of Renzo.

After the mournful parting which we have related, he set out,

discouraged and disheartened, on his way to Milan. To bid

farewell to his home and his country, and what was more, to Lucy!

to find himself among strangers, not knowing where to rest his

head, and all on account of this villain! When these thoughts

presented themselves to the mind of Renzo, he was, for the

moment, absorbed by rage and the desire of revenge; but when he

recollected the prayer that he had uttered with the good friar in

the convent of Pescarenico, his better feelings prevailed, and he

was enabled to acquire some degree of resignation to the

chastisements of which he stood so much in need. The road lay

between two high banks; it was muddy, stony, and furrowed by deep

wheel tracks, which, after a rain, became rivulets, overflowing

the road, and rendering it nearly impassable. In such places

small raised footpaths indicated that others had found a way by

the fields.