The _ballata_ which had been broken off on Orso's appearance had been composed on the occasion of the death of his father, Colonel della Rebbia, who had been murdered two years previously.

The sailor had no doubt at all that Orso was coming back to Corsica _per fare la vendetta_, such was his expression, and he affirmed that before long there would be _fresh meat_ to be seen in the village of Pietranera.

This national expression, being interpreted, meant that Signor Orso proposed to murder two or three individuals suspected of having assassinated his father--individuals who had, indeed, been prosecuted on that account, but had come out of the trial as white as snow, for they were hand and glove with the judges, lawyers, prefect, and gendarmes.
"There is no justice in Corsica," added the sailor, "and I put much more faith in a good gun than in a judge of the Royal Court.

If a man has an enemy he must choose one of the three S's." (A national expression meaning _schioppetto_, _stiletto_, _strada_--that is, _gun_, _dagger_, or _flight_.) These interesting pieces of information wrought a notable change in Miss Lydia's manner and feeling with regard to Lieutenant della Rebbia.
From that moment he became a person of importance in the romantic Englishwoman's eyes.
His careless air, his frank and good humour, which had at first impressed her so unfavourably, now seemed to her an additional merit, as being proofs of the deep dissimulation of a strong nature, which will not allow any inner feeling to appear upon the surface.

Orso seemed to her a sort of Fieschi, who hid mighty designs under an appearance of frivolity, and, though it is less noble to kill a few rascals than to free one's country, still a fine deed of vengeance is a fine thing, and besides, women are rather glad to find their hero is not a politician.
Then Miss Nevil remarked for the first time that the young lieutenant had large eyes, white teeth, an elegant figure, that he was well-educated, and possessed the habits of good society.