now too
late to repair thy fault. Thou canst return to thy charge."

"A million pardons, Bellissima Gelsomina, but indignation is the
uppermost feeling, when one in office sees his rights attacked by the
multitude. Send me to Corfu, or to Candia, if you please, and I will
bring back the color of every stone in their prisons, but do not send me
among rebels. My gorge rises at the sight of villany!"

As the keeper's daughter withdrew, while her father's assistant was
making this protestation of loyalty, the latter was compelled to give
vent to the rest of his indignation in a soliloquy.

One of the tendencies of oppression is to create a scale of tyranny,
descending from those who rule a state, to those who domineer over a
single individual. He, who has been much accustomed to view men, need
not be told that none are so arrogant with their inferiors, as those who
are oppressed by their superiors; for poor human nature has a secret
longing to revenge itself on the weak for all the injuries it receives
from the strong. On the other hand, no class is so willing to render
that deference, when unexacted, which is the proper meed of virtue, and
experience, and intelligence, as he who knows that he is fortified on
every side against innovations on his natural rights. Thus it is, that
there is more security against popular violence and popular insults in
these free states, than in any other country on earth, for there is
scarcely a citizen so debased as not to feel that, in assuming the
appearance of a wish to revenge the chances of fortune, he is making an
undue admission of inferiority.

Though the torrent may be pent up and dammed by art, it is with the
constant hazard of breaking down the unnatural barriers; but left to its
own course, it will become the tranquil and the deep stream, until it
finally throws off its superfluous waters into the common receptacle of
the ocean.

When Gelsomina returned to her visitors, it was with a report favorable
to their tranquillity. The riot in the court of the palace, and the
movement of the Dalmatians, had drawn all eyes in another direction; and
although some errant gaze might have witnessed their entrance into the
gate of the prison, it was so natural a circumstance, that no one would
suspect females of their appearance of remaining there an instant longer
than was necessary. The momentary absence of the few servants of the
prison, who took little heed of those who entered the ope