24 
young mistress could be found, and he was 
both shocked and alarmed to hear that they 
had seen nothing of her since noon, and sup- 
posed naturally enough, that she was with him. 
At once, almost frenzied with solicitude for his 
darling child, he instituted a careful search for 
her; soon the villagers became aware of his sad 
state and everyone joined in a careful search 
for the missing daughter. Every resource was 
exhausted ; months of most careful and shrewd 
investigation by skilled detectives, accompanied 
with lavish expenditure of money ; the offer of 
almost fabulous sums for her recovery and re- 
turn to her home, with sacred pledges that no 
prosecutions would follow, all, all failed. 
On that charming May day the Count’s idol- 
ized child dropped out of his life as completely 
as if supernatural influences had caught her up 
into another sphere of existence and she was 
no more of this earth. Well, year followed 
year, and the tireless and love-inspired search 
for his lost child after the expenditure of large 
sums of money, simply secured to the grief- 
stricken father, a slight ray of hope that she 
still lived. He learned that on that cruelly 
memorable day in sunny May, a band of bri- 
gands from the mountain retreats of the far 
Apennines passed through the village on its 
way to the wilderness, and it was proved that 
this band abducted the Count’s child while 
she was on her way to join her father in his 
ramble. 
