Soon we shall have them over the mountain, and we shall be seen." "Fool!" she cried, "a half-league behind, you say; and you forget that we were on the summit, and they had yet to scale it.

If you but press on we shall treble that distance, at least, ere they begin the descent.
Besides, Giacopo," she added, turning again to the leader, "you may be at fault; you may be scared by a shadow; you may be wrong in accounting them our pursuers." The man shrugged his shoulders, shook his head, and grunted.
"Arnaldo, there, made no mistake.

He told us what he saw." "Now Heaven help a poor, deserted maid, who set her trust in curs!" she exclaimed, between grief and anger.
I had been no better than those hinds of hers had I remained unmoved.

I have said that I hated the very name of Sforza; but what had this tender child to do with my wrongs that she should be brought within the compass of that hatred?
I had inferred that her pursuers were of the House of Borgia, and in a flash it came to me that were I so inclined I might prove, by virtue of the ring I carried, the one man in Italy to serve her in this extremity.

And to be of service to her, her winsome beauty had already inflamed me.