Terrified by the shaken rock and the bursting thunderbolts, our fiery horses became mad: they foamed, snorted, plunged, and kicked fire from the stones; the four that were unharnessed from the calesso broke loose and fled, at full speed, towards Seminara, pursued by the decurione and his sbirri, who were eager to save them: they were noble bays, and favourites of the duchess. Thus the sergeant and I were left alone standing by the calesso.
"Ghieu, ho! ho!" cried a croaking voice in the thicket; I heard a chuckling laugh, and a figure rolled up like a ball, making a summerset over the rocks and stones, lighted close by my feet. "Buon giorno, signor capitano! he, he! ho, ho! fine evening, eh?"
Like a gigantic toad, Gaspare Truffi stood before me, with his long matted hair waving over his frightful visage; his torn cassock revealing a leathern baldrick furnished with pistols, poniard, and horn. Like the very demon of the storm, he whooped and yelled. A broad-leaved hat of the largest size overshadowing his figure like an umbrella, gave a peculiarly droll effect to his aspect.
"A delightful evening!" he croaked; "how does our Calabrian weather agree with your stomach, Signor Inglese? Ill, I think, to judge from that lugubrious visage of thine. Ola, Lancelloti! come hither and behold the good padre confessor who came so devoutly to worm a story out of you in the bishop's vaults: he, he! ho, ho! Feel you how the ground shakes?" he added, stamping his shapeless feet on the quaking turf; "feel you how earth and air tremble? Ammirando! there is a rebellion in hell, for our good friend the devil is gone to the witch-tree at Benevento to-night: ha, ha!"
"Beard of Mahomet!" cried a distant voice, "where are you, cursed crookback?" and at that moment I saw my friend of the vaults advancing towards us, clad in the usual brigand costume, with malice in his eye and a cocked rifle in his hand. Other figures, like dim ghosts appeared through the dark misty vapour that floated round us, and I knew that we had fallen in with a party of banditti.
"Come on, comrades," cried Truffi; "here is a calesso containing, I doubt not, the Signora Bianca, whom we all know of. Viva! a prize worth a thousand scudi!" He advanced to the door of the carriage, but with the butt of his pike Gask dealt him a blow which levelled him on the turf. Uttering a yell he rushed like a lion upon his assailant; who, not expecting so vigorous an onset from a figure so decrepit, was taken completely by surprise and deprived of his weapon, which Truffi snapped like a reed; rending the tough ash pole to threads with his sharp teeth and long bony fingers.
He drew his stiletto; and I, narrowly escaping a rifle-shot from Lancelloti, closed with the hideous dwarf, whose insulting demeanor had roused both my hatred and anxiety. Though once before, in a personal struggle I had obtained convincing proof of his wondrous strength, I disdained to use my sabre against him; but striking the poniard from his hand, endeavoured to hurl him to the earth by grasping his leather girdle. In vain! his short bandy legs upheld his shapeless body, like pillars of steel, while his strong and ample hands grasped me like grappling irons.
Lancelloti advanced with his clubbed rifle; but Gask assailed him with his sword, and I was left to deal with Truffi alone. I heard the cries of Bianca during the lulls of the storm, and my anxiety was great: the sbirri had all disappeared, the misty figures were rapidly increasing in form and number, and shouts rang through the echoing wood. At this most critical moment, when engaged in a desperate struggle, the earth shook under our feet and a sensation like an electric shock shot over every nerve. We paused and glared fiercely at each other.
Again, there was a rumbling in the lurid air above, and the quivering earth beneath: yet we relaxed not our vice-like grasp. What a moment it was! The shaking rocks, the waving trees and the whole country around us were torn by one of those mighty convulsions so common to the Calabrias.
Never shall I forget my sensations when, within a yard of where we struggled, the earth gaped and rent; showing an awful chasm about twenty feet wide: my heart forgot to beat; my blood curdled! From the gap there arose a thin sulphury light, illuminating the trees above and the distant dingles of the wood, shining on the wet trunks and glistening leaves; showers of sparks and columns of smoke arose from it, with balls of ignited matter, which hissed in succession as they rose and fell, or exploded among the wet foliage of the forest. Beautiful was its aspect when illuminated by the mysterious yellow glare of that smoky chasm; and I saw the distorted form of Truffi, in strong outline between it and me. I felt his grasp tightening: we were near the gulf, and I read his hellish purpose in the twinkling of his red hollow eyes. Gathering all my strength for one tremendous effort, great beyond my hopes, I flung him from me into the flaming chasm: but the shock threw me prostrate on the turf. I leaped up: Truffi had vanished in that appalling grave, which was now closing rapidly, and soon shut altogether; the sparks and ignited matter arose no more, and the wood became involved in double gloom.