ill be useless to offer me any
remedies, for I will not take them."

"It is not Sir Paul Parravicin," replied the old woman. "I have brought
a stranger, with whose name I am unacquainted, to see you."

"Then you have done very wrong," replied Nizza. "I will see no one."

"Not even me, Nizza?" asked Leonard, advancing. The poor girl started at
the sound of his voice, and raising herself on one arm, looked wildly
towards him. As soon as she was satisfied that her fancy did not deceive
her, she uttered a cry of delight, and falling backwards on the couch,
became insensible.

Leonard and the old woman instantly flew to the poor girl's assistance,
and restoratives being applied, she speedily opened her eyes and fixed
them tenderly and inquiringly on the apprentice. Before replying to her
mute interrogatories, Leonard requested the old woman to leave them--an
order very reluctantly obeyed--and as soon as they were left alone,
proceeded to explain, as briefly as he could, the manner in which he had
discovered her place of captivity. Nizza listened to his recital with
the greatest interest, and though evidently suffering acute pain,
uttered no complaint, but endeavoured to assume an appearance of
composure and tranquillity.

"I must now tell you all that has befallen me since we last met," she
said, as he concluded. "I will not dwell upon the persecution I endured
from the king, whose passion increased in proportion to my resistance--I
will not dwell upon the arts, the infamous arts, used to induce me to
comply with his wishes--neither will I dwell upon the desperate measure
I had determined to resort to, if driven to the last strait--nor would I
mention the subject at all, except to assure you I escaped contamination
where few escaped it."

"You need not give me any such assurance," remarked Leonard.

"While I was thus almost driven to despair," pursued Nizza, "a young
female who attended me, and affected to deplore my situation, offered to
help me to escape. I eagerly embraced the offer; and one night, having
purloined, as she stated, the key of the chamber in which I was lodged,
she conducted me by a back staircase into the palace-gardens. Thinking
myself free, I warmly thanked my supposed deliverer, who hurried me
towards a gate, at which she informed me a man was waiting to guide me
to a cottage about a mile from the city, where I should be in perfect
safety."

"I see the device," cried Leonard. "But, why--why did