"At present I feel as if I was in a dream; but you shall tell us all presently." They were, by this time, outside the grounds of the villa, and some of the servants, who knew the country, now took the lead.

In a few minutes the merchant slackened his pace.
"We are out of danger now," he said.

"They will not know in which direction to search for us; and if they scatter in pursuit we could make very short work of any that might come up with us." "I do not know that you are out of danger," Francis said.

"A hundred men landed.

Mocenigo, with twenty, took the line to your house, but the rest have scattered over the country in smaller bands, bent on murder and pillage.