"Ah, you trust every one!" she cried in passion and in scorn of his simplicity. "You trust Luigi! You trust me!" "Why not?" said he. "But indeed now I have no choice. For they cannot carry both Jacopo and me up the path." "Jacopo! You would stay for Jacopo?" she flashed out fiercely. "If nothing else, yet my oath would bind me not to leave him while he lives. For we of the band are all bound to one another as brethren by an oath, and it would look ill if I, for whom they all have given much, were the first to break the oath. So here I am, and here I must stay," and Antonio ended smiling, and, his foot hurting him while he stood, sat down again and rested against the rock. It was now late, and evening fell; and Venusta knew that the Duke's men should soon be upon them. And she sat down near Antonio and buried her face in her hands, and she wept. For Antonio had so won on her by his honour and his gentleness, and most of all by his loyal clinging to the poor boy Jacopo, that she could not think of her treachery without loathing and horror. Yet she dared not tell him; that now seemed worse to her than death. And while they sat thus, Luigi came and told Antonio that the youth was sore hurt and that they could not lift him. "Then stay by him," said Antonio. "I need nothing." And Luigi bowed, and, turning, went back to the other youth, and bade him stay by Jacopo, while he went by Antonio's orders to seek for some one to aid in carrying him. "I may chance," said he, "to find some shepherds." So he went, not to seek shepherds, but to seek the Duke's men, and tell them that they might safely come upon Antonio, for he had now none to guard him. Then Antonio said to Venusta, "Why do you sit and weep?" For he thought that she wept because he had scorned the love in which her words declared her to hold him, and he was sorry. But she made no answer. And he went on, "I pray you, do not weep. For think not that I am blind to your beauty or to the sweet kindness which you have bestowed upon me. And in all things that I may, I will truly and faithfully serve you to my death." Then she raised her head and she said, "That will not be long, Antonio." "I know not, but for so long as it may be," said he. "It will not be long," she said again, and burst into quick passionate sobs, that shook her and left her at last breathless and exhausted. Antonio looked at her for a while and said, "There is something that you do not tell me. Yet if it be anything that causes you pain or shame, you may tell me as readily as you would any man. For I am not a hard man, and I have many things on my own conscience that forbid me to judge harshly of another." She raised her head and she lifted her hand into the air. The stillness of evening had fallen, and a light wind blew up from the plain. There seemed no sound save from the flowing of the river and the gentle rustle of the trees.