was very ill.

He covered his eyes with his hand for a few seconds. In a flash he saw
that if he were ever to carry off Maria Addolorata, it must be to-night.
The chances were a hundred to one that if there were another crisis, the
abbess would be dead before he could reach the convent. Once dead, there
was no knowing what might happen in the confusion that would ensue, and
during the elaborate funeral ceremonies. The man had that daring temper
that rises at obstacles as an eagle at a crag, without the slightest
hesitation. When he dropped his hand upon the table he had made up his
mind.

It was generally easy to get a good mule at any hour of the night in
Subiaco. The mules were in their stables then. In the daytime it would
have been very doubtful, when most of them were away in the vineyards,
or carrying loads to the neighbouring towns. The convent gardener, who
was well-to-do in the world, had a very good mule, as Dalrymple knew,
and its stable was half-way up the ascent. The boy could saddle it with
the pack-saddle without any difficulty, and meet him anywhere he chose.
Dalrymple's reputation was excellent as a liberal foreigner who paid
well, and the gardener would not blame the boy for saddling the mule
without leave.

In a few words Dalrymple explained what he wanted, and to help the lad's
understanding he gave him some coppers which filled the little fellow
with energy and delight. The boy was to be at the top of the mule path
leading down from above the convent to the valley in half an hour.
Dalrymple told him that he wished to go to Tivoli, and that the boy
could come with him if he chose, after the visit to the abbess was over.
The boy ran away to saddle the mule.

Dalrymple rose quickly, and shut the street door in order to take the
lamp with him to his room, and not to leave the house open with no light
in it. The case was urgent. He went upstairs, carrying the lamp, and
opened the door of his quarters. Instantly he recognized the faint,
sickly odour of hydrocyanide of potassium, and remembered that he had
left the bottle with the solution on his table that afternoon in his
hurry. Then he looked down and saw a white face upon the floor, and the
flowered bodice and smart skirt of the peasant girl.

He had solid nerves, and possessed that perfect indifference to death as
a phenomenon which most medical men acquire in the dissecting-room. But
he was shocked when, bending down, and setting the lamp upon t