Chamberss Edinburgh Journal, No. 419 | Page 5

voice
and a confusion of manner that excited general observation. He made
violent efforts, however, to appear at his ease, but these efforts were too
manifest to be successful; whilst the continued absence of Mendez
became so unaccountable, that a cloud seems to have settled on the
spirits of the company, which made the expected festivity pass very
heavily off.
'Where could Mendez be? What could have detained him? It was to be
hoped no harm had happened to him!' Such was the burden of the
conversation till--when at about an hour before midnight the party
broke up--Alessandro Malfi said, that to allay the anxiety of his wife,
who was getting extremely alarmed about her brother, he would walk
as far as Forni--which was the name of Gaspar's farm--to inquire what
had become of him.
As Ripa's way lay in the same direction, they naturally started together;
and after what appears to have been a very silent walk--for the spirits of
Giuseppe were so depressed that the other found it impossible to draw
him into conversation--they reached Forni, when, having rung the bell,
they were presently answered by Antonio Guerra, who put his head out
of an upper window to inquire who they were, and what they wanted.
'It is I, Alessandro Malfi. I want to know where your master is, and
why he has not been to my house this evening as he promised?'
'I thought he was there,' said Antonio. 'He set off from here to go soon
after seven o'clock.'
'That is most extraordinary!' returned Malfi. 'What in the world can
have become of him?'
'It is very strange, certainly,' answered the servant. 'He has never come
home; and when you rang I thought it was he returned from the party.'
As there was no more to be learned, the two friends now parted; Malfi
expressing considerable surprise and some uneasiness at the
non-appearance of his brother-in-law: whilst of Giuseppe we hear
nothing more till the following afternoon, when, whilst at work in his
vineyard, he was accosted by two officers of justice from Aquila, and
he found himself arrested, under an accusation of having waylaid

Mendez in a mountain-pass on the preceding evening, and wounded
him with the design of taking his life.
The first words Ripa uttered on hearing this impeachment--words that,
like all the rest of his behaviour, told dreadfully against him--were:
'Isn't he dead, then?'
'No thanks to you that he's not,' replied the officer; 'but he's alive, and
likely to recover to give evidence against his assassin.'
'_Dio_!' cried Giuseppe, 'I wish I'd known he wasn't dead!'
'You confess, then, that you wounded him with the intent to kill?'
'No,' answered Ripa; 'I confess no such thing. As I was going through
the pass last night I observed a man's hat lying a little off the road, and
on lifting it, I saw it belonged to Señor Mendez. Whilst I was
wondering how it came there without the owner, and was looking about
for him, I spied him lying behind a boulder. At first I thought he was
asleep, but on looking again, I saw he didn't lie like a sleeping man, and
I concluded he was dead. Had it been any one but he, I should have
lifted him up; but it being very well known that we were no friends, I
own I was afraid to do so. I thought it better not to meddle with him at
all. However, if he is alive, as you say, perhaps he can tell himself who
wounded him.'
'To be sure he can,' returned the officer: 'he says it's you!'
'_Perduto son' io!_--Then I am lost!' exclaimed Ripa; who, on being
brought before the authorities, persisted in the same story; adding, that
so far from seeking Mendez, he had particularly wished to avoid him,
and that that was the reason he had started so late; for he had been
warned that the Spaniard was his enemy, and he apprehended that if
they met alone some collision might ensue.
It appeared, however, that he had consumed much more time on the
road than could be fairly accounted for; for two or three people had met
him on the way before he reached Forni; and then Antonio Guerra
could speak as to the exact hour of his passing. This discrepancy he
attempted to explain by saying, that after seeing Mendez on the ground,
dead--as he believed--he had been so agitated and alarmed that he did
not like to present himself at Malfi's house, lest he should excite
observation. He had also spent some time in deliberating whether or not
he should mention what he had seen; and he had made up his mind to
do so on his arrival, but was deterred by everybody's asking him,