“‘Well,’ replied the traveller, who seemed used to this difference between the servility of a man of the cities and the pride of the mountaineer, ‘if you refuse wages, you will, perhaps, accept a gift.’
“‘Ah, yes, that is another thing.’
“‘Then,’ said the traveller, ‘take these two Venetian sequins and give them to your bride, to make herself a pair of earrings.’
“‘And then do you take this poniard,’ said the young herdsman; ‘you will not find one better carved between Albano and Civita-Castellana.’
“‘I accept it,’ answered the traveller, ‘but then the obligation will be on my side, for this poniard is worth more than two sequins.’
“‘For a dealer perhaps; but for me, who engraved it myself, it is hardly worth a piastre.’
“‘What is your name?’ inquired the traveller.
“‘Luigi Vampa,’ replied the shepherd, with the same air as he would have replied, Alexander, King of Macedon. ‘And yours?’
“‘I,’ said the traveller, ‘am called Sinbad the Sailor.’”
Franz d’Épinay started with surprise.