"Oh, my God!" cried Sidney, staggering as if he had been struck by a blow as heavy as that which had wounded his son. For a moment or two he felt faint and stunned, unable to move or speak, and the circle of faces and figures around him appeared to whirl dizzily about him. He was conscious of the stare of their inquisitive and savage eyes, which were fastened upon him with unfriendly gaze, and he could hear the muttering of their uncouth voices. The hovel was blazing behind them, and the thick smoke was blown down in clouds upon him and them. He felt almost suffocated. Was it possible that he was about to die here among these terrible men and women? He made a superhuman effort to shake off the deadness that was creeping over him.
With his consciousness there returned to him the habit of authority and command. He drew himself up and looked round at them all with a keen gaze, from which they shrank a little, sulkily and abjectly. His knowledge of their language came back fluently to his aroused brain, and made it easy to address them.
"Your padre told me I should find Martino here, in Chiara's house. What right have you to set that house on fire? It is not yours."
"He would not come out," answered one of the women, for all the men were silent. Certainly they had no right to destroy the hut, and the law was stern on offenders such as they were.
"And why did you want him to come out?" asked Sidney.
"Because he shall not live among us any longer," replied the man who had spoken to him before; "he is accursed, and he has the evil eye. His mother is in hell, and no mass can be said for her soul; and he does not belong to us. No man of us will give him a hand, and no woman will give him a look. Would any woman here be the wife of Martino?"
There was a roar of contempt and abhorrence, a laugh such as Sidney had never heard before.
"But where is he gone?" he asked.
"Up yonder," answered the man, pointing to a peak standing high and clear in the morning sky; "there is a cave up there good enough for a wolf like him. Let him stop there."
"I am come here to take him away," said Sidney; "he is my son."