Lucia the Betrothed From the Italian Author:Alessandro Manzoni General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1834 Original Publisher: G. Dearborn Description: Pub. also with title: The betrothed (I promessi sposi) a Milanese story of the seventeenth century ... Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. ... more » When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: CHAPTER XIII. The unfortunate vicar was at this moment making a slight dinner, awaiting anxiously the termination of this hurricane; he was however far from suspecting that its greatest fury was to be spent on himself. Some benevolent persons hastened forward to inform him of his urgent peril. The servants, drawn to the door by the uproar, beheld, in affright, the dense mass advancing. While they listened to the friendly notice, the vanguard appeared; one hastily informed his master, and while he, for a moment, deliberated upon flight, another came to say there was no longer time for it; in hurry and confusion they closed and barri- cadoed the windows and the doors. The howling without increased, each corner of the house resounded with it; and in the midst of the vast and mingled noise, was heard, fearfully and distinctly, the blows of stones upon the door. " The tyrant! the tyrant! we must have him ! living or dead!" The poor man wandered from room to room in a state of insupportable anguish, commending himself to God, and beseeching his servants to be firm, and to find for him some way of escape ! He ascended to the highest floor, and from an opening between the garret and the roof, he looked anxiously out upon the road, and beheld it filledwith the enraged populace ; more discouraged than ever, he withdrew to seek the most secure and secret hiding- place. Here, concealed, he listened intently to ascertain if at any time the importunate transport of pas...« less