Chapter Thirty Two.
Captain Count Guardioli.
The town of Val di Orno was now in military possession, and there was no longer any fear of a revisit from the bandits.
The soldiers, in all about a hundred, were distributed by billet into the best houses while the officers took possession of the inn.
The captain, however, not contented with such shelter as the humble hostelry afforded contrived to insinuate himself into more comfortable quarters, in the house of the chief magistrate of the town, who, as already known, was the sindico himself.
It was a hospitality somewhat reluctantly offered; and, under other circumstances, the offer might not have been made. But the times were troublous, the brigands were “abroad,” and people could not well act with churlishness towards their professed protectors.
Besides, Francesco Torreani, on his own account, had need to show courtesy, or pretend it, to the soldiers of the Pope. It was suspected that he sympathised with that party of liberal views, fast growing in influence, and who, under the inspiration of Mazzini, was threatening an Italian republic.
Compromised by this suspicion, the sindico of Val di Orno required to act with circumspection in the presence of the Pope’s officer.