"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.