uld we go at once to the house, and,
by the help of the police, force an entrance, and rescue your daughter?
This was a very hazardous resource. The abode, which, at various times,
had served for the hiding-place of men haunted by the law, abounded,
according to our informant, in subterranean vaults and secret passages,
and had more than one outlet on the river. At our first summons at the
door, therefore, the ruffians within might not only escape themselves,
but carry off their prisoner. The door was strong, and before our
entrance could be forced, all trace of her we sought might be lost.
Again, too, the prince was desirous of bringing Peschiera's guilty
design home to him,--anxious to be able to state to the emperor, and
to the great minister his kinsman, that he himself had witnessed the
count's vile abuse of the emperor's permission to wed your daughter. In
short, while I only thought of Violante, the prince thought also of her
father's recall to his dukedom. Yet, still to leave Violante in that
terrible house, even for an hour, a few minutes, subjected to the actual
presence of Peschiera, unguarded save by the feeble and false woman who
had betrayed and might still desert her--how contemplate that fearful
risk? What might not happen in the interval between Peschiera's visit
to the house and his appearance with his victim on the vessel? An idea
flashed on me: Beppo was to conduct the count to the house; if I could
accompany Beppo in disguise, enter the house, myself be present?--I
rushed back to our informant, now become our agent; I found the plan
still more feasible than I had at first supposed. Beppo had asked the
count's permission to bring with him a brother accustomed to the sea,
and who wished to quit England. I might personate that brother. You
know that the Italian language, in most of its dialects and varieties of
patois--Genoese, Piedmontese, Venetian--is as familiar tome as Addison's
English! Alas! rather more so. Presto! the thing was settled. I felt my
heart, from that moment, as light as a feather, and my sense as keen as
the dart which a feather wings. My plans now were formed in a breath,
and explained in a sentence. It was right that you should be present
on board the vessel, not only to witness your foe's downfall, but to
receive your child in a father's arms. Leonard set out to Norwood for
you, cautioned not to define too precisely for what object you were
wanted, till on board.

"Frank, accompa