They were countenanced and cherished by
several of the villages; and though now and then the limbs of
malefactors hung blackening in the trees near which they had committed
some atrocity; or their heads stuck upon posts in iron cages made some
dreary part of the road still more dreary, still they seemed to strike
dismay into no bosom but that of the traveller.
The dark, handsome young man; and the Venetian lady, whom I have
mentioned, had arrived early that afternoon in a private carriage,
drawn by mules and attended by a single servant. They had been recently
married, were spending the honeymoon in travelling through these
delicious countries, and were on their way to visit a rich aunt of the
young lady's at Naples.
The lady was young, and tender and timid. The stories she had heard
along the road had filled her with apprehension, not more for herself
than for her husband; for though she had been married almost a month,
she still loved him almost to idolatry. When she reached Terracina the
rumors of the road had increased to an alarming magnitude; and the
sight of two robbers' skulls grinning in iron cages on each side of the
old gateway of the town brought her to a pause. Her husband had tried
in vain to reassure her. They had lingered all the afternoon at the
inn, until it was too late to think of starting that evening, and the
parting words of the estafette completed her affright.
