DEMON OF SICILY.

CHAP. VI.

DISTRACTION seized the mind of Ricardo when he heard that his beloved Louisa had been carried off. For some moments in speechless agony he gazed on the equally distressed Signora Bononi, then having informed

VOL. II.

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himself

himself of the time she was taken, he rushed swiftly out of the cottage, and vowing he would seek her in every part of the island, proceeded as swiftly as his limbs trembling with horror, consternation, and despair, could carry

him.

Arrived at his castle, he ordered the fleetest horses to be saddled, and, attended by some of his domestics, set out on his journey. From the peasants who resided near the residence of the Signora Bononi he learnt that a lady was observed to ride by very early in the morning, and that

there were

her.

some horsemen with

As

As there was no

doubt but that

the person described by the peasants must be Louisa, Ricardo pursued his course along the road they informed him she had gone; and, animated with the hope of soon reaching her, and revenging himself on the ruffians who had bore her away, he soon crossed the hills that closed in the valley, and darted into the black bosom of a forest through which lay the road they had taken.

The forest extended some leagues, and sheltered them by its umbrageous recesses from the burning heat of the mid-day sun. Toward the evening, Ricardo was obliged to stop, to rest B 2

the

the wearied steeds, and to allow his people to refresh themselves; for himself, his mind was too miserable to permit him to think of food, and each moment was an age that delayed his pursuit of Louisa.

His people were soon mounted on their horses, and leaving the forest, they now began to wind over a mountainous tract of country.

Ricardo reached the summit of the last of the chain of hills just as the clouds, tinged with the radiant beams of the setting sun, were losing their borrowed lustre. Before him lay for many leagues a flat country, and as

swiftly