OUR DOGS. 123 



French soldiers, whose gay red legs and blue coats seemed 

 to please her mightily; and many a fine chase she gave 

 her mistresses, who were obliged to run up and down, here, 

 there, and everywhere, to find her when they wanted to go 

 home again. 



One time my lady's friskiness brought her into quite a 

 serious trouble, as you shall hear. We were all going to 

 St. Peter's Church, and just as we came to the bridge of 

 St. Angelo, that crosses the Tiber, we met quite a con- 

 course of carriages. Up jumped my lady Florence, all alive 

 and busy, for she always reckoned everything that was 

 going on a part of her business, and gave such a spring 

 that over she went, sheer out of the carriage, into the 

 mixed medley of carriages, horses, and people below. We 

 were all frightened enough, but not half so frightened as 

 she was, as she ran blindly down a street, followed by a 

 perfect train of ragged little black-eyed, black-haired boys, 

 all shouting and screaming after her. As soon as he could, 

 our courier got down and ran after her, but he might as 

 well have chased a streak of summer lightning. She was 

 down the street, round the corner, and lost to view, with 

 all the ragamuffin tribe, men, boys, and women, after her ; 

 and so we thought we had lost her, and came home to our 

 lodgings very desolate in heart, when lo ! our old porter 

 told us that a little dog that looked like ours had come 

 begging and whining at our street door, but before he could 



