night was so dark that I could not see anything within
a yard ahead of me; the day was breaking when we arrived in Fusina.

The boatmen threatened me with a fresh storm; but setting everything at
defiance I took a four-oared boat, and reached my dwelling quite safe but
shivering with cold and wet to the skin. I had scarcely been in my room
for a quarter of an hour when the messenger from Muran presented herself
and gave me a letter, telling me that she would call for the answer in
two hours. That letter was a journal of seven pages, the faithful
translation of which might weary my readers, but here is the substance of
it:

After the interview with M. de Bragadin, the father of C---- C---- had gone
home, had his wife and daughter to his room, and enquired kindly from the
last where she had made my acquaintance. She answered that she had seen
me five or six times in her brother's room, that I had asked her whether
she would consent to be my wife, and that she had told me that she was
dependent upon her father and mother. The father had then said that she
was too young to think of marriage, and besides, I had not yet conquered
a position in society. After that decision he repaired to his son's room,
and locked the small door inside as well as the one communicating with
the apartment of the mother, who was instructed by him to let me believe
that she had gone to the country, in case I should call on her.

Two days afterwards he came to C---- C----, who was beside her sick
mother, and told her that her aunt would take her to a convent, where she
was to remain until a husband had been provided for her by her parents.
She answered that, being perfectly disposed to submit to his will, she
would gladly obey him. Pleased with her ready obedience he promised to go
and see her, and to let his mother visit her likewise, as soon as her
health was better. Immediately after that conversation the aunt had
called for her, and a gondola had taken them to the convent, where she
had been ever since. Her bed and her clothes had been brought to her; she
was well pleased with her room and with the nun to whom she had been
entrusted, and under whose supervision she was. It was by her that she
had been forbidden to receive either letters or visits, or to write to
anybody, under penalty of excommunication from the Holy Father, of
everlasting damnation, and of other similar trifles; yet the same nun had
supplied her with paper, ink and books, an