nothing
found. When the court broke up, my hope had entirely vanished; and when
I was led back to the hall on the third day, the verdict was
communicated to me. I had been convicted of willful murder, and
sentenced to death. To this, then, I had come at last! Deprived of
every thing that was still dear to me on earth, far from my home, I
should die innocent of crime, and, in the bloom of my youth, under an
ax!

I was sitting in my lonely prison on the evening of the day that had
decided my fate, with my hopes all dissipated, and my thoughts
earnestly turned on death, when my prison door opened, and a man
entered, who regarded me long and silently. "And thus I find you once
more, Zaleukos?" said he. I had not recognized him by the dull gleam of
my lamp, but the tone of his voice awoke old memories in me. It was
Valetty, one of the few friends I had made during my studies in Paris.
He said that happening to come to Florence, where his father, who was a
man of prominence, lived, he heard of my story; he had come to see me,
to learn from my own lips how I had come to commit so terrible a crime.
I told him the whole story. He seemed very much astonished, and
implored me to tell him, my only friend, the whole truth, and not die
with a lie on my lips, I swore to him by every thing that was sacred
that I had spoken the truth, and that the only burden on my conscience
was that, dazed by the glitter of the gold, I had not perceived the
improbabilities in the stranger's story. "Then you did not know
Bianca?" asked he. I assured him that I had never seen her before.
Valetty then told me that a deep secret hung over the deed, that the
Governor had passed sentence on me very hastily, and there was a rumor
among the people that I had known Bianca for a long time, and had
murdered her out of revenge for her approaching marriage with another.
I remarked to him that all this might apply to the man in the red
mantle, but that I was unable to prove his participation in the deed.
Valetty embraced me, weeping, and promised to make every effort to save
my life. I had but little hope, yet I knew that Valetty was a wise man
and experienced in the laws, and that he would do his best to save me.

For two long days I remained in uncertainty. At last Valetty appeared.
"I bring you consolation, even though it be painful," said he. "You
will live and be set at liberty; but with the loss of a hand."

Joyfully I thanked my friend for my life. He tol