ounterpoise acting as
a lift raised me through the floor,
and I saw the Duchess in her lover's
arms. She threw me a piece of
bread, my daily pittance.

"Thus have I lived for thirty
months! From this marble prison
my cries can reach no ear. There is
no chance for me. I will hope no
more. Indeed, the Duchess' room is
at the furthest end of the palace,
and when I am carried up there
none can hear my voice. Each time
I see my wife she shows me the

226 OLYMPIA

poison I had prepared for her and
her lover. I crave it for myself, but
she will not let me die; she gives
me bread, and I eat it.

"I have done well to eat and live;
I had not reckoned on robbers!"

"Yes, Eccellenza, when those fools
the honest men are asleep, we are
wide awake."

"Oh, Rinaldo, all I possess shall
be yours; we will share my treasure
like brothers; I would give you
everything--even to my Duchy----"

"Eccellenza, procure from the
Pope an absolution _in articulo mor-
tis_. It would be of more use to me
in my walk of life."

OR ROMAN REVENGE 227

"What you will. Only file
through the bars of my cage and
lend me your dagger. We have but
little time, quick, quick! Oh, if my
teeth were but files!--I have tried
to eat through this iron."

"Eccellenza," said Rinaldo, "I
have already filed through one bar."

"You are a god!"

"Your wife was at the fete given
by the Princess Villaviciosa. She
brought home her little Frenchman;
she is drunk with love.--You have
plenty of time."

"Have you done?"

"Yes."

228 OLYMPIA

"Your dagger?" said the Duke
eagerly to the brigand.

"Here it is."

"Good. I hear the clatter of the
spring."

"Do not forget me!" cried the
robber, who knew what gratitude
was.

"No more than my father," cried
the Duke.

"Good-bye!" said Rinaldo. "Lord!
How he flies up!" he added to him-
self as the Duke disappeared.--"No
more than his father! If that is
all he means to do for me.--And I

OR ROMAN REVENGE 229

had sworn a vow never to injure a
woman!"

But let us leave the robber for a
moment to his meditations and go
up, like the Duke, to the rooms in
the palace.

"Another tailpiece, a Cupid on a snail! And page 230 is blank," said the
journalist. "Then there are two more blank pages before we com