the vaulted passage and
across the great hall and up the marble stair-case and along the north
gallery and through the west wing of the castle and I am in the corridor
in a minute.' 'Are you so? says he, and what is to become of you, if
you meet any of those noble cavaliers in the way?' 'Well, says I, if you
think there is danger, then, go with me, and guard me; I am never afraid
when you are by.' 'What! says he, when I am scarcely recovered of one
wound, shall I put myself in the way of getting another? for if any of
the cavaliers meet you, they will fall a-fighting with me directly.
No, no, says he, I will cut the way shorter, than through the vaulted
passage and up the marble stair-case, and along the north gallery and
through the west wing of the castle, for you shall stay here, Annette;
you shall not go out of this room, to-night.' 'So, with that I says'--

'Well, well,' said Emily, impatiently, and anxious to enquire on another
subject,--'so he locked you up?'

'Yes, he did indeed, ma'amselle, notwithstanding all I could say to the
contrary; and Caterina and I and he staid there all night. And in a few
minutes after I was not so vexed, for there came Signor Verezzi roaring
along the passage, like a mad bull, and he mistook Ludovico's hall, for
old Carlo's; so he tried to burst open the door, and called out for more
wine, for that he had drunk all the flasks dry, and was dying of thirst.
So we were all as still as night, that he might suppose there was nobody
in the room; but the Signor was as cunning as the best of us, and kept
calling out at the door, "Come forth, my antient hero!" said he, "here
is no enemy at the gate, that you need hide yourself: come forth, my
valorous Signor Steward!" Just then old Carlo opened his door, and he
came with a flask in his hand; for, as soon as the Signor saw him, he
was as tame as could be, and followed him away as naturally as a dog
does a butcher with a piece of meat in his basket. All this I saw
through the key-hole. Well, Annette, said Ludovico, jeeringly, shall I
let you out now? O no, says I, I would not'--

'I have some questions to ask you on another subject,' interrupted
Emily, quite wearied by this story. 'Do you know whether there are any
prisoners in the castle, and whether they are confined at this end of
the edifice?'

'I was not in the way, ma'amselle,' replied Annette, 'when the first
party came in from the mountains, and the last party is not come
back yet,