CHAPTER VII.

by Alexandre Dumas

　　WE still kept advancing steadily, but, as Lucien had warned me, thepath became rougher and more difficult.I slung my gun over my shoulder, for I perceived that I should soonneed both hands to assist me. As for my friend, he continued to pressforward with the same easy gait, and did not appear to be at allinconvenienced by the difficult nature of the ground.After some minutes' climbing over rocks, aided by bushes and roots, wereached a species of platform surmounted by some ruined walls. Theseruins were those of the Castle of Vicentello d'Istria, ourdestination.In about five minutes we had climbed up to the last terrace, Lucien inadvance, and as he extended his hand to assist me he said:--"Well done, well done; you have not climbed badly for a Parisian.""Supposing that the Parisian you have assisted has already had somelittle experience in mountain scrambling?""Ah, true!" said Lucien, laughing. "Have you not a mountain near Pariscalled Montmartre?""Yes, but there are others beside Montmartre which I have ascended.For instance, the Rigi, the Faulhorn, the Gemmi, Vesuvius, Stromboliand Etna.""Indeed! Now I suppose you will despise me because I have never donemore than surmount Monte Rotundo! Well, here we are! Four centuriesago my ancestors would have opened the portal to you and bade youwelcome to the castle. Now their descendants can only show you theplace where the door used to be, and say to you, 'Welcome to theruins!'""I suppose the chateau has been in possession of your family since thedeath of Vicentello d'Istria?" I said, taking up the conversation atthe point at which we had dropped it previously."No, but before his birth. It was the last dwelling-place of ourfamous ancestress Savilia, the widow of Lucien de Franchi.""Is there not some terrible history connected with this woman?""Yes; were it daylight I could now show you from this spot the ruinsof the Castle of Valle. There lived the lord of Guidice, who was asmuch hated as she (Savilia) was beloved, as ugly as she was beautiful.He became enamoured of her, and as she did not quickly respond to hisdesires, he gave her to understand that if she did not accept him in agiven time he would come and carry her off by force. Savilia madepretence of consenting, and invited Guidice to come to dinner at thecastle. Guidice was overcome with joy at this, and forgetting that theinvitation had only been extorted by menace, accepted it, and cameattended only by a few body servants. The gate was closed behind them,and in a few minutes Guidice was a prisoner, and cast into a dungeon,yonder."I passed on in the direction indicated, and found myself in a speciesof square court.The moonlight streamed through the apertures time had made in the oncesolid walls, and threw dark and well-defined shadows upon the ground.All other portions of the ruins remained in the deep shade of theoverhanging walls round about.Lucien looked at his watch."Ah! we are twenty minutes too soon," he exclaimed. "Let us sit down;you are very likely tired."We sat down; indeed, we extended ourselves at full length upon thegrassy sward, in a position facing the great breach in the wall."But," said I to my companion, "it seems to me that you have notfinished the story you began just now.""No," replied Lucien. "Every morning and every evening Savilia camedown to the dungeon in which Giudice was confined, and then separatedfrom him only by a grating, she would undress herself, and exposeherself naked to him, a captive.'"'Giudice,' she would say, 'how do you expect that such an ugly man asyou are can ever hope to possess all this?'"This trial lasted for three months, and was repeated twice a day. Butat the end of that period, thanks to a waiting woman whom he hadbribed, Guidice was enabled to escape. He soon returned with all hismen, who were much more numerous than those Savilia could assemble,and took the castle by assault, and having first possessed himself ofSavilia, he subsequently exposed her naked in an iron cage at thecross roads in the Bocca di Cilaccia, offering, himself, the key toany passer by who might be tempted to enter. After three days of thispublic prostitution Savilia died.""Well," I said, "it seems to me that your ancestors had a very prettyidea of revenging themselves, and that in finishing off their enemieswith dagger or gunshot their descendants have in a mannerdegenerated!""Without mentioning that the day may come when we shall not kill themat all!" replied Lucien. "But it has not come to that yet. The twosons of Savilia," he continued, "who were at Ajaccio with their uncle,were true Corsicans, and continued to make war against the sons ofGuidice. This war lasted for four hundred years, and only finished, asyou saw, by the dates upon the carbines of my parents, on the 21stSeptember, 1819, at eleven o'clock A.M.""Oh, yes, I remember the inscription; but I had not time to inquireits meaning, as just then we were summoned to supper.""Well, this is the explanation: Of the family of Guidice thereremained, in 1819, only two brothers. Of the de Franchi family thereremained only my father, who had married his cousin. Three monthsafter that the Guidice determined to exterminate us with one stroke.One of the brothers concealed himself on the road to Olmedo to awaitmy father's coming home to Sartène--while the other, taking advantageof his absence, determined to attack our house. This plan was carriedout, but with a different result to what had been anticipated. Myfather, being warned of the plot, was on his guard; my mother, who hadalso got a hint of the affair, assembled the shepherds, &c., so thatwhen the attack was made the intended victims were prepared for it--myfather on the mountains, my mother in the mansion. The consequence wasthat the two Guidici fell, one shot by my father, the other by mymother. On seeing his foe fall, my father drew out his watch and sawit was eleven o'clock. When my mother shot her assailant she turned tothe timepiece and noticed that it was also eleven o'clock. The wholething had taken place exactly at the same moment. There were no moreGuidici left, the family was extinct, and our victorious family is nowleft in peace; and considering we carried on a war for four hundredyears, we didn't want to meddle with it any more. My father had thedates engraved upon the carbines, and hung the pieces up on each sideof the clock, as you saw. Seven months later my mother gave birth totwins, of whom one is your very humble servant, the Corsican Lucien;the other, the philanthropist, Louis, his brother."As he ceased speaking, I noticed a shadow of a man accompanied by adog projected in the doorway.The shadows were those of the bandit Orlandi and his friend Diamond.At that moment the village clock of Sullacaro was heard striking ninewith measured strokes.Evidently the Orlandi was of Louis XV.'s opinion, that punctuality isthe politeness of kings!It would have been impossible to have been more exact than was thatking of the mountain, with whom Lucien had appointed a meeting at nineo'clock.We both rose from our reclining posture when we saw the banditapproaching.