ut, my dear
Constantia, where there are only two in the society, there is an even
chance for the tyranny."

"A pleasant prospect! But you mistake me, Leonora. It is not the husband
in his tyranny I fear,--I have not come to think of that; it is the lover
and his love! I would not be infected by the turmoil of his passion. I
dread it. Friends let me have and cherish. Leonora, be you always one of
them; but for this turbulent Love, may the lightest down upon his pinion
never touch me! How soft it seems, how light, as light and soft as the
down we rob the swan's neck of; but touch it, and it burns, and fans a
fever into the veins. I do love my own calm life, and I will keep it."

As she spoke thus, she rose from her seat and advanced towards the window.
The two friends stood looking together down the street, which, as the sun
descended, began to be deserted of its usual crowd. Their attention was
arrested by a numerous body of footmen, and other attendants, who were
escorting apparently some lady in a sedan chair. They were rather
surprised to observe that the sedan chair directed its course towards
their own house. A knocking at the door was heard; and soon after their
servant brought them word, that a certain Signora ---- desired urgently to
speak with Constantia, but that she could not quit her chair. The person
whose name was announced, was an old lady, one of Constantia's most
intimate friends; she descended immediately into the hall to meet her. She
precipitated herself towards the sedan chair, the door of which stood
open; a slight impulse from some bystander, from a hand which trembled as
it touched her, carried her forward, and she found herself seated in what
indeed was an empty chair. Before she had time to raise an alarm, she
found herself borne swiftly and softly along the street. Leonora, who had
followed her friend down the stairs, and was a witness to her singular
disappearance, called up all the servants of the establishment, and
despatched them after their mistress. They followed, but to no purpose.
The running footmen, on either side of the sedan, drew their swords. They
were students in disguise. Giacomo had succeeded in his daring enterprise.

Constantia had hardly collected her thoughts, when she perceived that her
chair was carried through a lofty archway up a broad flight of stairs, and
deposited in a spacious apartment, once the proud saloon of a palatial
residence, though the whole building, of w