“‘And now,’ said I, ‘will you explain the mystery of seeing a score of Italians in a state of intoxication?’
The count laughed slightly, and for an answer he said—
“‘Look attentively.’
As for the young Italian, he revealed his presence only by long-drawn sighs.
“I could now examine at my leisure what passed below us in the room, which was lighted by four miserable lamps, and which gave out more odour than light. Some twenty persons were present.
“They were ordinary men with healthy colour, and whose glances were full of pride and energy. Some of them were advanced in years and were gray; others were mere boys, but all appeared equally audacious and daring.
“At the moment I had taken in these particulars, one of them had mounted a bench and commenced to speak; the rest listened with great attention, and from their attitude, I could infer that the proposition of the orator was received with favour.
“All at once, it occurred to me that these men were not intoxicated. There may have been one or two whose brains were somewhat affected by drink; but none had that brutal and contemptible drunkenness which one sometimes sees among our workmen in the large cities. One would imagine them to be conspirators or bandits, but never drunkards.”
“I always understood that the Italians were not addicted to habits of intemperance,” observed young Knoulton.
“Neither are they—at any rate as far as my experience of them is concerned,” returned Murdock.