They then related that having been at work in the forest, cutting up
the branches and trunk of a tree, which had fallen from old age and
natural decay, they were going to another part of the Pineta, a
short distance off, where another fallen tree awaited their axes and
saws, when they saw a lady asleep as they thought on a bank. They
were about to pass on without interfering with her in any way, when
one of their party remarked that it was odd that all the noise they
had made had not wakened her, for they had come along laughing,
singing, and talking loudly. This had led them to approach closely
to her; and then,--as they looked at her, a suspicion of the truth
began to come to their minds. They touched her, and found that she
was dead. She was not quite cold, they said, and were quite sure of
that fact. They looked at her, and looked all around to see if they
could perceive any sign of the cause of her death. But they could
see nothing. There was, as far as they could see, no trace of blood,
either on her dress or anywhere around the spot where she lay. And
then they had borrowed a door from the farm near St. Apollinare, and
had brought the body here, and that was all they knew about it.
"Had they seen any other person in the forest that morning?"
"Not a soul; and they had been in that part of the Pineta, or at
least at no great distance, all the morning from sunrise.
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