CHAPTER XXVII.
AN HOUR OF TRIAL.
Manasseh and those with him were taken prisoners and sent to Bresci.
What befell them there is matter of history.

Adorjan was surprised one morning by the receipt of the following: a coffee-coloured uniform, trimmed with red cord and its collar adorned with gold lace; a handsome sword in a gold-mounted scabbard; and an official document from the Italian war office, appointing him major of the battalion with which he had been taken prisoner.
The sight of these most unexpected presents could not but thrill Manasseh with pride and exultation.

Now at last it was in his power to wreak vengeance on those who had so grievously wronged him,--to cut his way, sword in hand, back to his downtrodden fatherland, perhaps even to exact a rich retribution at the oppressor's hands, and to restore his country once more to a position of proud independence.

Added to all this, the seductive picture of future fame, of undying renown as a patriot and liberator, rose before his vision.

Already, as hero of the _Madonna della Scoperta_, he had tasted the intoxication of martial glory.