I AM one of those fools of feeling," said the stranger, rising. "You
have divined aright."

"And wilt thou not, in return for my mercy, utter to-night the
revelations thou wouldst proclaim to-morrow? Come; and perhaps thou
too--nay, the woman also--may receive, not reprieve, but pardon."

"Before your tribunal, and there alone! Nor will I deceive you,
president. My information may avail you not; and even while I show the
cloud, the bolt may fall."

"Tush! prophet, look to thyself! Go, madman, go. I know too well the
contumacious obstinacy of the class to which I suspect thou belongest,
to waste further words. Diable! but ye grow so accustomed to look on
death, that ye forget the respect ye owe to it. Since thou offerest
me thy head, I accept it. To-morrow thou mayst repent; it will be too
late."

"Ay, too late, president!" echoed the calm visitor.

"But, remember, it is not pardon, it is but a day's reprieve, I have
promised to this woman. According as thou dost satisfy me to-morrow,
she lives or dies. I am frank, citizen; thy ghost shall not haunt me for
want of faith."

"It is but a day that I have asked; the rest I leave to justice and to
Heaven. Your huissiers wait below."

CHAPTER 7.XVI.

Und den Mordstahl seh' ich blinken;
Und das Morderauge gluhn!
"Kassandra."

(And I see the steel of Murder glitter,
And the eye of Murder glow.)

Viola was in the prison that opened not but for those already condemned
before adjudged. Since her exile from Zanoni, her very intellect had
seemed paralysed. All that beautiful exuberance of fancy which, if not
the fruit of genius, seemed its blossoms; all that gush of exquisite
thought which Zanoni had justly told her flowed with mysteries and
subtleties ever new to him, the wise one,--all were gone, annihilated;
the blossom withered, the fount dried up. From something almost above
womanhood, she seemed listlessly to sink into something below childhood.
With the inspirer the inspirations had ceased; and, in deserting love,
genius also was left behind.

She scarcely comprehended why she had been thus torn from her home and
the mechanism of her dull tasks. She scarcely knew what meant those
kindly groups, that, struck with her exceeding loveliness, had gathered
round her in the prison, with mournful looks, but with words of comfort.
She, who had hitherto been taught to abhor those whom Law condemns for
crime, was amazed to hear that beings thu