She ran to me at once.
"Is it all right ?" she asked breathlessly.
"We shall see in a moment," said I."The attack is coming off; it will begin directly." But the attack was not the next thing we saw.

We had both retreated again to the friendly shadow whence we could see without being seen.
Hardly had we settled ourselves than the signorina whispered to me, pointing across the road to the wood: "What's that, Jack ?" I followed the line of her finger and made out a row of figures standing motionless and still on the very edge of the wood.

It was too dark to distinguish individuals; but, even as we looked, the silent air wafted to our eager ears a low-voiced word of command: "Mind, not a sound till I give the word." "The President!" exclaimed the signorina, in a loud whisper.
"Hush, or he'll hear," said I, "and we're done." Clearly nothing would happen from that quarter till it was called forth by events in the opposite direction.

The signorina was strongly agitated; she clung to me closely, and I saw with alarm that the very proximity of the man she stood in such awe of was too much for her composure.

When I had soothed, and I fear half-frightened, her into stillness, I again turned my eyes toward the Piazza.