374

LIFE OF COLONEL MACERONI.

Moreover, these places must be traversed in the little puntsI have spoken of, the largest of which can only carry threemen, who must be long accustomed to the use of them, orthey capsize in an instant. The police party, charged withthe arrest of Bartolomeo, could not apply to the otherPantanari to assist them in their dirty job; such an applica-tion, or even the disclosure of their errand, might lead totheir destruction. What was to be done ? The Bishopwould be revenged, and nothing but the blood of Bartolomeowould satisfy his holy hate. It was decided to watch andwaylay him; but several weeks were lost in ceaseless toil,and with the death of two of the party drowned. OneSaturday evening Bartolomeo, proceeding in his Londra ,with one of his sons, along a ditch which led towards apiece of water thick set with alder trees and willows, atabout two miles from his pagliara, just before he issuedfrom the mass of reeds by which he was concealed, whis-pered to his son,—“Hold fast; some stranger has beenhere!” How he arrived at this conclusion I must explain.In passing with a Londra through these canals, the waterplants and the reeds which overhang them, and make itdifficult to push along, take a position depending on thedirection of the last boat that passed. These indications areoftentimes quite imperceptible to a stranger; but, as I haveoften instanced, any of the Pantanari will tell, from theposition of a single reed or blade of grass when any otherthan themselves has passed that way, so, just at the estuaryof one of his fossi, Bartolomeo perceived that strangers hadbeen there since he last passed. Taking up his big gun,loaded with half a dozen balls at least, he ordered his son topush very gently forwards, when, as soon as he could justsee beyond the entrance of his canal, he perceived fifteen ormore police soldiers crowded together in a couple ofawkward boats, embarrassed amongst the trees and osiers,