English pride naturally determines that its owner will die sooner than bestow the required penny on these little pests; but this righteous wrath sometimes entails unpleasant results. An acquaintance of ours, then at Corte, had, a few weeks before, been nearly mobbed by the elder part of the community when he attempted to cut the rope and offered to thrash the children. We ourselves came in for an unpleasant encounter, that might have ended awkwardly. We were taking a walk across the valley of the Tavignano, where it rushes, boiling and foaming in splendid cascades over its green and grey boulders, past the city, before joining the equally picturesque river Restonico.
It was Sunday evening; and, unfortunately, we had chosen a time when all the juvenile populace were out of school, and on the look-out for a little innocent amusement.
I have noticed that a demoniac phase often comes over naughty children on a Sunday evening. Be that as it may, a troop of about twenty, chiefly boys, pursued us unrelentingly far outside the precincts of the town, shouting their war-cry of "Sou, Inglese!" and running round and round till we could neither see the views, nor hear ourselves speak.
A rope which they stretched across the road for the customary pastime fortunately broke, and we passed on through the gap; but the broken remains, held by two youthful fiends, served as an instrument of torture wherewith to wind us up and hopelessly confuse our footsteps. Human endurance could bear no more; and, after one or two stern warnings, No. 3, whose wrath had been gradually gathering, suddenly saw her opportunity, and, darting upon two small tormentors before they could escape, she brought down her umbrella upon their degenerate backs with as much force as nature had supplied to her.
Instantly, the attitude of these juvenile Corsicans changed. They had been disporting themselves before: now they prepared for serious warfare. There was a moment's pause; and then a volley of sharp stones came after us.
We walked on quickly, but the charge increased instead of decreasing, one striking No. 2 on the head, and another No. 3 on the heel, but fortunately without inflicting any serious damage.
But flint stones from off a roadside are not pleasing weapons; and things might have ended badly for us, but for a sudden diversion.
From a cottage by the roadside just before us, dashed out three big boys, all over the humanizing age of thirteen; and, undertaking our defence without a word, they made a sudden onslaught upon our pursuers, and in two minutes had put them all to flight.
We were really relieved, and thanked the knights-errant warmly. Two of them, boys of about fourteen or fifteen, had pipes in their mouths; and one of them, a young man a year or two older, remarked sagely, that it was always thus with visitors: "Les enfants de Corte étaient terriblement méchants."
Having bade adieu to our gallant defenders, we were walking on, and had almost forgotten them, when the noise of a terrific struggling and scuffling behind us again attracted our attention.