"But do not people use the road? Are not carriages constantly passing and repassing? Is it likely that if it were unsafe there would be no acts of violence? Yet you say there have been none."
"Not of late, ma'am."
"But it is of late, and of the present time, that we are speaking."
"I can only say, ma'am, that the road is considered very dangerous."
"Who considers it so?"
"If you had made inquiries at Rome, ma'am, you would have found this out, and never would have thought of this road."
"And you advise us not to travel it?"
"I do, ma'am."
"What would you advise us to do?"
"I would advise you, ma'am, most earnestly, to turn and go back to Rome, and leave by another route."