"Have you been told nothing? Has no one been here from Florence? Are you still in the dark about everything?"
No one breathed.
"The taking of Rome," one of the girls ventured to say presently, after having consulted her papa with a glance—"we know of it."
"What! Nothing else?"
"Nothing else."
"But what a taking of Rome!" burst out the young man with a cry that made them all tremble—"what a taking of Rome! Then I bring you the account of it."
They all rose and gathered around him.
"But how is it possible," he went on crying, waving his hands—"how is it possible that you know nothing of it? Has not the news spread through the country? Have not the country-people assembled? What is the city government doing? Listen, then—listen; seat yourselves around me; I will relate all to you. My heart beats so that I can hardly speak."
"But what has happened?"
"Nothing: I will tell you nothing. I wish to relate everything in order: give me breathing-time. I wish you to hear the facts one by one as I saw them."