 THE BETROVED by Alessandro Manzoni read by Nicholas Bolton for Naxos audiobooks CHAPTER I That branch of the lake of Como, which extends towards the south, is enclosed by two unbroken chains of mountains, which, as they advance and recede, diversify its shores with numerous bays and inlets. Suddenly the lake contracts itself and takes the course and form of a river between a promontory on the right and a wide open shore on the opposite side. The bridge which there joins the two banks seems to render this transformation more sensible to the eye and marks the point where the lake ends and the adder again begins. Soon to resume the name of the lake where the banks receding afresh allow the water to extend and spread itself in new gulfs and bays. The open country bordering the lake formed of the alluvial deposits of three great torrents reclines upon the roots of two contiguous mountains, one named San Martino, the other in the Lombard dialect Il Resegone, because of its many peaks seen in profile, which in truth resemble the teeth of a saw so much so that no one at first sight, viewing it in front, as for example from the northern bastions of Milan, could fail to distinguish it by this simple description from the other mountains of more obscure name and ordinary form in that long and vast chain. For a considerable distance the country rises with a gentle and continuous ascent. Afterwards it is broken into hill and dale, terraces and elevated plains formed by the intertwining of the roots of the two mountains and the action of the waters. The shore itself, intersected by the torrents, consists for the most part of gravel and large flints, the rest of the plain, of fields and vineyards, interspersed with towns, villages, and hamlets. Other parts are clothed with woods, extending far up the mountain. Leco, the principle of these towns giving its name to the territory, is at a short distance from the bridge, and so close upon the shore that when the waters are high it seems to stand in the lake itself. A large town even now it promises soon to become a city. At the time the events happened which we undertake to recount, this town already of considerable importance was also a place of defense, and for that reason had the honor of lodging a commander and the advantage of possessing a fixed garrison of Spanish soldiers, who taught modesty to the damsels and matrons of the country, bestowed from time to time marks of their favor on the shoulder of a husband or a father, and never failed in autumn to disperse themselves in the vineyards to thin the grapes and lighten for the peasant the labors of the vintage. From one to the other of these towns, from the heights to the... Sample complete. Ready to continue?