o dark to distinguish any one plainly. Nothing was
left for him but to boldly ask which was Erastus' cell, though he could
not do so, without exciting suspicion against himself. As Felix was
preparing to descend, a gentleman stepped forward from the back part of
the room to the window, and said as if he had been watching him for
some time: "Yes, my dear friend, I also mourn the fate of the man, who
has ever been so faithful a friend to the Italians, and quite conceive
your anxiety about the innocent Lydia."

"Oh! in that case the Madonna sends you to my aid," answered the
artist, "Pray, noble Sir, which is Erastus' room?"

Pigavetta's pale face appeared at the window and as his sharp teeth
approached the artist's ear, he resembled more than ever a beast of
prey. "You wish to rescue her?" he whispered.

"I only wish to know in which room the father of my affianced bride is
confined?"

"Quite right, I forgot that Lydia was yours, the poor child." He
naturally wishes to free them both, he thought, which accounts for his
stealing round the Witches' Tower the whole afternoon. The artist
passionately assured him of his utter conviction of Lydia's innocence.
"Who indeed could believe her to be guilty?" said Pigavetta in an
absent manner. "It would be well for me to make use of this favorable
opportunity," thought the old Jesuit to himself. "No particular
importance is set on the punishment of the old scoundrel, and he must
always be an unpleasant witness. Should the old sinner escape then
everything is just as it should be. Listen to me, my young friend," he
said in a cordial tone, "we are countrymen, let us not beat about the
bush. Erastus' life is for me a matter in which I am at heart
interested, for I owe him much, and I have wept this very day bitter
tears over his child's fate. Confide in me, I will save them, do you
also wish this?"

"_Sanguinaccio di Dio_, whether I wish it?" answered Felix excitedly.

"Good, my friend. Erastus' cell is yonder where you see a light. It is
the same in which Sylvanus sat before being transported to Mannheim,
where the intermittent fever is killing the poor man. How you are to
reach that window is your own affair. It will be my business to see
that the sentries sleep well to-morrow night. You must hurry about it,
as sentence will be pronounced on Erastus in a few days."

Felix wished to thank Pigavetta, but he had already hurried off to an
adjoining room, and the sound of loud voi