like one who repressed
bitter emotion. "I was privy to the greedy exactions on the one side, and
to the humiliating concessions on the other. Even money could not buy this
boon for Balthazar's child, without a condition that the ineffaceable
stigma of her birth should be for ever concealed."

Adelheid saw, by the cold perspiration that stood on the brow of
Sigismund, how intensely he suffered, and she sought an immediate occasion
to lead his thoughts to a less disturbing subject. With the readiness of
her sex, and with the sensitiveness and delicacy of a woman that sincerely
loved, she found means to effect the charitable purpose, without again
alarming his pride. She succeeded so far in calming his feelings, that,
when they rejoined their companions, the manner of the young man had
entirely regained the quiet and proud composure in which he appeared to
take refuge against the consciousness of the blot that darkened his hopes,
frequently rendering life itself a burthen nearly too heavy to be borne.

Chapter XVI.

--Come apace, good Audrey, I will fetch
Up your goats, Audrey: and how, Audrey? am
I the man yet? Doth my simple features content
You.

_As You Like It._

While the mummeries related were exhibiting in the great square, Maso,
Pippo, Conrad, and the others concerned in the little disturbance
connected with the affair of the dog, were eating their discontent within
the walls of the guard-house. Vevey has several squares, and the various
ceremonies of the gods and demigods were now to be repeated in the smaller
areas. On one of the latter stands the town-house and prison. The
offenders in question had been summarily transferred to the gaol, in
obedience to the command of the officer charged with preserving the peace.
By an act of grace, however, that properly belonged to the day, as well as
to the character of the offence, the prisoners were permitted to occupy a
part of the edifice that commanded a view of the square, and consequently
were not precluded from all participation in the joyousness of the
festivities. This indulgence had been accorded on the condition that the
parties should cease their wrangling, and otherwise conduct themselves in
a way not to bring scandal on the exhibition in which the pride of every
Vevaisan was so deeply enlisted. All the captives, the innocent as well as
the guilty, gladly subscribed to the terms; for they found themselves in
a temporary duresse which