Pagina 228 di 1118

"Bad people, bad people, who wander about in the night; but they

have all fled.-Return to your houses. I thank you for your

kindness." So saying, he retired and shut the window. There was a

general murmur of disappointment through the crowd. Some laughed,

some swore, some shrugged up their shoulders and went home; but

at this moment a person came running towards them, panting and

breathless. He lived at the house opposite to the cottage of

Lucy, and had witnessed from the window the alarm of the bravoes,

when Griso endeavoured to collect them in the court-yard. When he

recovered breath, he cried, "What do you do here, friends? The

devil is not here, he is down at the house of Agnes Mondella.

Armed people are in it. It seems they wish to murder a pilgrim;

but who knows what the devil it is?"

"What! what! what!" And then began a tumultuous conversation.

"Let us go. How many are there? How many are we? Who are

they?-The constable! the constable!"