NTY ONE.

Ada Garden sat in the chamber of the tower which had been awarded to her
as her prison. Her Maltese attendant had accompanied young Mila to a
short distance from the castle--but she was not alone. A figure knelt
at her feet in the attitude of the deepest devotion; his head was bowed
down to the ground, and sobs burst from his bosom:--it was the young
Italian, whom we have known under the name of Paolo.

"Oh, hear me, lady!" he exclaimed passionately,--"oh, hear me, before
you dismiss me for ever from your presence. I cannot unsay what I have
said--I have dared to tell you that I love you with the fondest, the
deepest devotion--I have done so from the first moment I saw you; but
hear my excuses. I felt myself alone and desolate in the world; I
beheld you, bright, innocent, and beautiful, exposed, I knew, to the
most dreadful danger, and I determined to save you at all risks. I knew
not then that it was love--I thought it was compassion for one so fair.
I saw you brought on board the pirate vessel, the accursed _Sea Hawk_,
unconscious of your state. My medical knowledge would, I knew, be of
service: I suggested that your life hung on a thread, that the slightest
agitation might destroy you, and I so worked on the fears of the
miscreant chief, that I persuaded him to confide you entirely into my
charge. I ventured even to administer a narcotic, to render you
insensible when Zappa wished to see you, and to frighten him still more
into the belief that you were on the point of death. Day after day I
saw you, I felt that your safety depended on me, that I might even yet
be the means of rescuing you from the thraldom under which you are
placed, and day after day my love increased--I have fed upon it till it
has become a part of my very existence, and can end but with my life.
Then tell me, lady--tell me, how could you expect me to do otherwise
than confess the love which is consuming me? I do not ask yet for a
return of my devotion--I do not expect it till I have accomplished far
more than I yet have done to deserve it; but yet, I do say, when my task
is fulfilled--when I have placed you in safety, and can surround you
with the luxuries to which you are accustomed--when I can restore you to
your proper station in life, that must be my reward, or I will place a
dagger in your hand, and bid you strike home to my heart; for that would
be the only other boon I would ask of you--the only other happiness I
could e