1829.] a Mediterranean Sketch. 23 



" I regret that this haughty cook-maid is not called Andromache, to 

 assimilate with the husband's name of Hector." 



" Po you find that name in bad taste ?" 



*' No ; but I should never expect to give it to any one here." 



" And yet you find here the manners of Homer." 



" Which I by no means admire. Confess that a man may dine better 

 at Grignon's than in the tent of Achilles. — You smile !" 



" It is a tribute I often pay to your speeches." 



" And with Avhich you dispense in regard to your own. — But I am 

 not yet done with this matron of the numerous tribe. I want to inquire 

 if she may not be your cousin in the hundredth degree." 



Angeluccia, on being questioned, declined the honour proposed to her ; 

 not, however, without hinting at the merits of her family, which 

 descended from one of the Caporali, or chiefs of the people, famous in 

 the fifteenth century. 



" But," said Laura, " if these cavaliers wish to learn any thing, let 

 them see Zia Sacra, who can tell every thing." 



" You are right," replied the mother ; " besides, that Zia Sacra is of 

 the family of " 



" Precisely !" interrupted Lord Charles. 



" Oh, Zia Sacra will tell you all that better than I can — that is, if she 

 should choose to answer you." 



" The Signora Sacra is capricious, then ?" inquired the count. 



" She ! — Sacra capricious \" exclaimed their hostess. — " Blessed Vir- 

 gin ! take care what you say ; you do not know her." 



" Is it then some power," resumed the count, " of whom we must 

 speak only with veneration ?" 



" Yes, truly." 



" As to me," observed Laura, " I tremble at even hearing her 

 named !" 



" I wager that it is a sorceress," said the Russ to his companion. 

 " This becomes delightful ! Pray let me hear all that tliese two women 

 have to say of the redoubtable Sacra. — Well, Signora Angeluccia — and 

 this kinswoman " 



" Lives in the last house to the left, at the foot of the rock whence 

 issues the fountain. She is there, alone, in front of the church where 

 they bury all our dead ; and she fears nothing." 



" AikI every evening," interrupted Laura, " she goes to pi-ostrate 

 herself before the church-door, to call upon her dead children, who reply 



to her, and to speak with tliem until the Angeliis " 



" And she returns chaunting the Salve that they chaunt in pur- 

 gatory." 



" And where has she learned this same Salve ?" inquired the count. 

 " It is now t'vventy years," replied Angeluccia, " since her husband, 

 l)eing ill, she was sitting one morning beside him; her twelve sons were 

 dead, and her two daughters also ; and still Sacra said always, ' My 

 heiu't is broken — the children of my bosom have been torn from me — 

 but glory to the Lord for ever !' Her husband, being then lying down, 

 said to her suddenly, ' It is the first day of the month, Sacra ; and you have 

 not carried the bread and the wine to the convent for ray father's mass.' 

 — ' I will go thei-e noAv,' replied Siicra. But, as she was going out, she 

 looked round her and said, ' I had fourteen children, and now my hus- 

 band is alone when I leave him : should his hour come while I am 



