teal the lace. I did so in a moment of desperation, when I fully
believed he would have murdered me if I had refused to obey him. I had
it by me so long; for, in the first instance, I did not venture to offer
it for sale; and latterly, I thought it would be difficult to procure
the full price. At last I heard that you were searching for old lace,
and thought I was safe in your hands. Circumstances have turned out
differently. I sent to Flavio to tell him that I had found a customer
for it, and till the very moment I was arrested I was perfectly ignorant
that he and that scoundrel Emmanuel were in close communion together;
but when I was dragged out of my small, miserable lodging, like a
condemned criminal, rather than as a person only accused of a crime,
Emmanuel, who stood by, with a glow of triumph over his pale, miserable,
withered countenance, whispered to me, 'Thank Flavio for this; he
denounced you for the reward.'"

"He will escape you," I said; "of course he will imagine that you intend
to be revenged upon him."

"He will not escape me long, for I know that he imagines me ignorant of
the woman with whom he is now living, and who hates him with a
bitterness second only to my own. She will give him up to justice, and
deservedly so. A greater villain does not exist. I cannot tell you what
his whole conduct has been to me--his acts of barbarous cruelty. Even my
child, whom I dote on, cannot make me forgive the father all his
iniquity."

"And this poor child?" I said.

"Ah, that is the thought that lays next my heart with a weight which I
can scarce sustain!" And she clasped her hands to her bosom, as though
to express the greatness of her affliction. "What I ask you is to see
the child, to give her this lock of hair and likeness. And may I venture
one thing more,--may I ask you to take care that she is not left utterly
destitute?" And so saying, she put a small purse in my hand, saying, "It
is very light, but it contains all that I possess."

I returned her the purse, as she required every baiocchi to add to her
comforts in the prison; but I set her mind at rest by promising to see
her child the next morning, and to do all that lay in my power for its
support and protection.

She fell at my feet, bathing my hands with her tears. In her beauty, as
she knelt before me, I for the moment forgot in what spot we were
standing, and looked upon her with an interest which was only broken,
rudely enough, by the clangin