tired my hair, till I
looked like even such a woman as Gioconda; and then, letting myself
down at dark by a rope made of the sheet I drew from under you, I ran
through the streets to the quarter of the merchants. La Gioconda had
forgotten to pack a cloak in the bundle; the night was snowing, with
snow underfoot; and I had run past the quays before the fear struck
me that, at so late an hour, the jewellers would have closed their
shops. But in the street behind the Dogano I found one open, and the
jeweller asked no questions. It appeared that he was used to such
women, and, having examined the stone through his magnifying-glass,
he counted me out three hundred livres.

"I ran back, faster than I had come, and climbed to the loft, hand
over hand, with the money weighing me down. It was in my mind to
bribe one of the market-women, through Gioconda, to smuggle you out
through the North Gate, under the baskets in her cart. But the day
had scarcely broken before Gioconda came (and she had never come yet
until evening) with terrible news. She said that I must count on her
no more, for the accursed clericals (as she called them) had made
interest with the Genoese Government to clear all the stews, and that
she and her sisters by the gateway had orders to be quit of the city
within twenty-four hours; in fact her sisters had begun to pack
already, and the whole party would drive away, with their belongings,
soon after night-fall. I asked her whither. 'To Milan,' she said;
for at Turin the Church was even stronger and more bigoted than in
Genoa.

"A new thought came to me then. I handed down my money to Gioconda,
keeping back only a little, and prayed her to go to the woman, her
mistress, and bargain with her to carry you out of the city,
concealed beneath the furniture. The girl clapped her hands at the
notion, and ran, but in an hour's time came creeping back in tears.
The woman would have more money--even threatened to betray us unless
I found her five hundred livres in all. . . .

"I borrowed Gioconda's shawl and sent her away, charging her to
return before evening. Then I loosened another stone from the
crown--a sardonyx--and again I went out through the streets to the
jeweller's. It was worse now than by night, for the people stared,
and certain men followed me. I took them for spies at first; but
presently my stupid brain cleared, and I guessed for what they
mistook me; and then I kept them at their distanc