his debtor. I owe him as much as my life is
worth."

"Think, think," she urged; and promised affection, devotion, veneration,
vague things, that were too like his own sentiments to prompt him
pointedly. Yet he so pledged himself to her by word, and prepared his
own mind to conceive the act of service, that (as he did not reflect)
circumstance might at any moment plunge him into a gulf. Conduct of this
sort is a challenge sure to be answered.

One morning Vittoria was gladdened by a letter from Rocco Ricci, who had
fled to Turin. He told her that the king had promised to give her a warm
welcome in his capital, where her name was famous. She consulted with
Laura, and they resolved to go as soon as Angelo could stand on his
feet. Turin was cold--Italy, but it was Italy; and from Turin the
Italian army was to flow, like the Mincio from the Garda lake. "And
there, too, is a stage," Vittoria thought, in a suddenly revived thirst
for the stage and a field for work. She determined to run down to Meran
and see Angelo. Laura walked a little way with her, till Wilfrid, alert
for these occasions, joined them. On the commencement of the zig-zag
below, there were soldiers, the sight of whom was not confusing.
Military messengers frequently came up to the castle where Count
Lenkenstein, assisted by Count Serabiglione, examined their depositions,
the Italian in the manner of a winding lawyer, the German of a gruff
judge. Half-way down the zig-zag Vittoria cast a preconcerted signal
back to Laura. The soldiers had a pair of prisoners between their ranks;
Vittoria recognized the men who had carried Captain Weisspriess from the
ground where the duel was fought. A quick divination told her that they
held Angelo's life on their tongues. They must have found him in the
mountain-pass while hurrying to their homes, and it was they who had
led him to Meran. On the Passeyr bridge, she turned and said to Wilfrid,
"Help me now. Send instantly the doctor in a carriage to the place where
he is lying."

Wilfrid was intent on her flushed beauty and the half-compressed quiver
of her lip.

She quitted him and hurried to Angelo. Her joy broke out in a cry of
thankfulness at sight of Angelo; he had risen from his bed; he could
stand, and he smiled.

"That Jacopo is just now the nearest link to me," he said, when she
related her having seen the two men guarded by soldiers; he felt
helpless, and spoke in resignation. She followed his eye about the roo