He thought it no
meanness to escape and cause a warning to be conveyed to the Government
that there was another attempt brewing for the rescue of Count Ammiani.
Acting forthwith on the hot impulse, he seized the lamp. The door was
unlocked. Luckier than Luigi had been, he found a ladder outside, and
a square opening through which he crawled; continuing to ascend along
close passages and up narrow flights of stairs, that appeared to him to
be fashioned to avoid the rooms of the house. At last he pushed a
door, and found himself in an armoury, among stands of muskets, swords,
bayonets, cartouche-boxes, and, most singular of all, though he observed
them last, small brass pieces of cannon, shining with polish. Shot was
piled in pyramids beneath their mouths. He examined the guns admiringly.
There were rows of daggers along shelves; some in sheath, others bare;
one that had been hastily wiped showed a smear of ropy blood. He stood
debating whether he should seize a sword for his protection. In the act
of trying its temper on the floor, the sword-hilt was knocked from his
hand, and he felt a coil of arms around him. He was in the imprisoning
embrace of Barto Rizzo's wife. His first, and perhaps natural,
impression accused her of a violent display of an eccentric passion for
his manly charms; and the tighter she locked him, the more reasonably
was he held to suppose it; but as, while stamping on the floor, she
offered nothing to his eyes save the yellow poll of her neck, and hung
neither panting nor speaking, he became undeceived. His struggles were
preposterous; his lively sense of ridicule speedily stopped them. He
remained passive, from time to time desperately adjuring his living
prison to let him loose, or to conduct him whither he had come; but the
inexorable coil kept fast--how long there was no guessing--till he could
have roared out tears of rage, and that is extremity for an Englishman.
Rinaldo arrived in his aid; but the woman still clung to him. He was
freed only by the voice of Barto Rizzo, who marched him back. Rinaldo
subsequently told him that his discovery of the armoury necessitated his
confinement.

"Necessitates it!" cried Wilfrid. "Is this your Italian gratitude?"

The other answered: "My friend, you risked your fortune for my brother;
but this is a case that concerns our country."

He deemed these words to be an unquestionable justification, for he said
no more. After this they ceased to converse.

Ea