t is thy name prisoner?"

"Tommaso Santi; sometimes known among my friends as San Tommaso; called by
my enemies, Il Maledetto, and by my familiars, Maso."

"Thou hast a formidable number of aliases, the certain sign of a rogue.
Thou hast confessed that thou canst read----"

"Nay, Signor Bailiff, I would not be taken to have said----"

"By the faith of Calvin, thou didst confess it, before all this goodly
company! Wilt thou deny thine own words, knave, in the very face of
justice? Thou canst read--thou hast it in thy countenance, and I would go
nigh to swear, too, that thou hast some inkling of the quill, were the
truth honestly said. Signor Grimaldi, I know not how you find this affair
on the other side of the Alps, but with us, our greatest troubles come
from these well-taught knaves, who, picking up knowledge fraudulently, use
it with felonious intent, without thought of the wants and rights of the
public."

"We have our difficulties, as is the fact wherever man is found with his
selfishness and passions Signor Bailiff; but are we not doing an ungallant
act towards yonder fair bride, by giving the precedency to men of this
cast? Would it not be better to dismiss the modest Christine, happy in
Hymen's chains, before we enter more deeply into the question of the
manacles of these prisoners?"

To the amazement of all who knew the bailiff's natural obstinacy, which
was wont to increase instead of becoming more manageable in his cups,
Peterchen assented to this proposition with a complaisance and apparent
good-will, that he rarely manifested towards any opinion of which he did
not think himself legitimately the father; though, like many others who
bear that honorable title, he was sometimes made to yield the privileges
of paternity to other men's children. He had shown an unusual deference to
the Italian, however, throughout the whole of their short intercourse, and
on no occasion was it less equivocal, than in the promptness with which he
received the present hint. The prisoners and officers were commanded to
stand aside, but so near as to remain beneath his eye, while some of the
officials of the abbaye were ordered to give notice to the train, which
awaited these arrangements in silent wonder, that it might now approach.

Chapter XVIII.

Go, wiser thou! and in thy scale of sense
Weigh thy opinion against Providence;
Call imperfection what thou fanciest such;
Say, here he gives too little, there