But Gaydon was out of his reckoning. There were no fairy tales told for
Misset to overhear, and the Princess Clementina slept in her corner of
the carriage. If a jolt upon a stone wakened her, a movement opposite
told her that her sentinel was watchful and alert. Three times the
berlin stopped for a change of horses; and on each occasion Wogan was
out of the door and hurrying the ostlers before the wheels had ceased to
revolve.

"You should sleep, my friend," said she.

"Not till we reach Italy," he replied; and with the confidence of a
child she nestled warmly in her cloak again and closed her eyes. This
feeling of security was a new luxury to her after the months of anxiety
and prison. The grey light of the morning stole into the berlin and
revealed to her the erect and tireless figure of her saviour. The sun
leaped down the mountain-peaks, and the grey of the light was now a
sparkling gold. Wogan bade her Highness look from the carriage window,
and she could not restrain a cry of delight. On her left, mountain-ridge
rose behind mountain-ridge, away to the towering limestone cliffs of
Monte Scanupia; on her right, the white peaks of the Orto d'Abram
flashed to the sun; and between the hills the broad valley of the Adige
rolled southwards,--a summer country of villages and vines, of
mulberry-trees and fields of maize, in the midst of which rose the
belfries of an Italian town.