Madame Ruzzini, who saw that she was being spoken of, asked me what the
count had said, and I told her, word for word. 'Tell him,' said she,
'that I accept his declaration of war, and that we shall see who will
wage it best.' I did not think I had committed a crime in reporting her
reply, which was after all a mere compliment. After the opera we set out,
and got here at midnight. I was going to sleep when a messenger brought
me a note ordering me to go to the Bussola at one o'clock, Signor
Bussinello, Secretary of the Council of Ten, having something to say to
me. Astonished at such an order--always of bad omen, and vexed at being
obliged to obey, I went at the time appointed, and my lord secretary,
without giving me a word, ordered me to be taken here."

Certainly no fault could be less criminal than that which Count Fenarolo
had committed, but one can break certain laws in all innocence without
being any the less punishable. I congratulated him on knowing what his
crime had been, and told him that he would be set free in a week, and
would be requested to spend six months in the Bressian. "I can't think,"
said he, "that they will leave me here for a week." I determined to keep
him good company, and to soften the bitterness of his imprisonment, and
so well did I sympathize with his position that I forgot all about my
own.

The next morning at day-break, Lawrence brought coffee and a basket
filled with all the requisites for a good dinner. The abbe was
astonished, for he could not conceive how anyone could eat at such an
early hour. They let us walk for an hour in the garret and then shut us
up again, and we saw no more of them throughout the day. The fleas which
tormented us made the abbe ask why I did not have the cell swept out. I
could not let him think that dirt and untidiness was agreeable to me, or
that my skin was any harder than his own, so I told him the whole story,
and shewed him what I had done. He was vexed at having as it were forced
me to make him my confidant, but he encouraged me to go on, and if
possible to finish what I was about that day, as he said he would help me
to descend and then would draw up the rope, not wishing to complicate his
own difficulties by an escape. I shewed him the model of a contrivance by
means of which I could certainly get possession of the sheets which were
to be my rope; it was a short stick attached by one end to a long piece
of thread. By this stick I intended to attach