The Sicilian Bandit / From the Volume Captain Paul""

e fleet, having on board a man, and a boy of twelve or fourteen years of age, stopped when it came within sight of Palermo, and lowering its sail, brought

d to be plunged in a deep reverie, still, as if mechanically, he took up the sea-water with his rig

flight: at first sight, you could see that he was a native of a more ardent clime than that in which the events we record too

ntered the narrow strait, the pirates left the creek in which they had been concealed with three vessels and rowed forward to attack their expected prize, the prince. The latter, however, immediately perceiving the imminence of his danger, ordered his crew to turn the boat's head towards the shore, and run her aground on the beach at Furella. They did not succeed in reaching the point desired, but the place where the boat grounded had only about three feet of water, and the

mself and all his followers. Immediately after the prisoners had laid down their arms, a party of countrymen were seen approaching, armed with muskets and pitchforks, and the pirates, having made themselves masters of the prince's person, th

beach where the struggle had taken place, they found one of the Prince of Paterno's domestics dead, another slightly wounded in the thigh, and three of the pirates bathed in their blood, but still breathing. Two blows from the butt-end of a musket soon ma

first man who should approach his protégé, and as they knew him to be a man who would not hesitate an instant in putting his threat into execution, they allowed him to take the boy in his arms and go off with him. Bruno proceeded

te bournouse in which he was dressed, loosened the belt to which his yataghan was still attached, and perceived by the rays of the setting sun the situation of the wound. Upon

ords in a foreign language, but without opening his eyes. Bruno, however, knowing that a wound caused by fire-arms produced a burning thirst, guessed that he

wound, he continued, unceasingly, to apply to it his handkerchief dipped in the sea-a reme

the African coast. Pascal with little difficulty directed his bark into the stream; and leaving Mod

carried him inland. He soon reached the entrance to a valley, into which he descended, and presently came to a spot where the mountain was perpendicular, the smoother side of which was pierced i

are hole that answered the purpose of a window. A bed of rushes was heaped up in the corner, and on this he spread out the boy's bournouse; and then h

y for the sake of passing away his solitary time, he had entered that valley, and rested in that chamber which had been excavated in the rock thr

m to them; for in his youth he had heard numbers of tales related of enchanted guns, invulnerable men, and invisible travellers; and his fearless mind, delighting in the marvellous and the terrible, had but one engrossing desire, that of meeting with some mysterious being, some sorcerer, enchanter, or demon who, by means of an infernal compact, would endow him with some supe

ged, opened his eyes, looked round him with a wandering gaze, and at last fixed his eyes upon the man who had saved him, but unconscious whether he saw in him a friend or an enemy. During this exa

understood on the coast of the Mediterranean, from Marseilles to Alexandria, from Consta

you?" ask

," replie

risoner then?

nswered

me I here?"

, and when he had finished his tale, he fixed his eyes gratefully upon Pasca

id Bruno,

ded boy, "thy son's nam

al Br

otect thee,"

nt of anything

said the boy;

ed near the cave; on going up again he cast his eyes on the boy's yataghan, which he had made no

s there were drops of water in this cup,"

uno; "make haste and get well, and you

ot leave him. Since that time, he had always remained with him, accompanying him in his hunting excursions over the mountain

rang the bell at the gate, and again, when he entered the chateau. He was just about to climb into the window to render Bruno assistance when the latter sprang out; he followed him in his flight, and when they reached the shore, they both of them

passed through Bruno's shoulder, so that Ali had but to make a slight incision with his yataghan to extract it from the side opposite to that at which it entered. All this took place without the interference of Bruno who appea

rupting himself in his pretended o

t is it?"

f people?".

" asked

d leading to the ch

e winding road that led to the church. Bruno saw that it was

re, and row quickly," he cried, st

ea; the nearer they approached the shore the more terrible the features of Bruno became: at le

or fear I should have carried her off. God knows, I have done all in my power to bri

l of his little bark, which, doubling Mount Pellegrino,