was not there; but
the nurse!--was she gone also? He made the house resound with the name
of Gionetta, but there was not even an echo to reply. At last, as he
reluctantly quitted the desolate abode, he perceived Gionetta coming
towards him from the street.

The poor old woman uttered an exclamation of joy on seeing him; but,
to their mutual disappointment, neither had any cheerful tidings or
satisfactory explanation to afford the other. Gionetta had been aroused
from her slumber the night before by the noise in the rooms below; but
ere she could muster courage to descend, Viola was gone! She found the
marks of violence on the door without; and all she had since been able
to learn in the neighbourhood was, that a Lazzarone, from his nocturnal
resting-place on the Chiaja, had seen by the moonlight a carriage, which
he recognised as belonging to the Prince di --, pass and repass that
road about the first hour of morning. Glyndon, on gathering from the
confused words and broken sobs of the old nurse the heads of this
account, abruptly left her, and repaired to the palace of Zanoni. There
he was informed that the signor was gone to the banquet of the Prince
di --, and would not return till late. Glyndon stood motionless with
perplexity and dismay; he knew not what to believe, or how to act.
Even Mervale was not at hand to advise him. His conscience smote him
bitterly. He had had the power to save the woman he had loved, and had
foregone that power; but how was it that in this Zanoni himself had
failed? How was it that he was gone to the very banquet of the ravisher?
Could Zanoni be aware of what had passed? If not, should he lose a
moment in apprising him? Though mentally irresolute, no man was more
physically brave. He would repair at once to the palace of the prince
himself; and if Zanoni failed in the trust he had half-appeared to
arrogate, he, the humble foreigner, would demand the captive of fraud
and force, in the very halls and before the assembled guests of the
Prince di --.

CHAPTER 3.XVI.

Ardua vallatur duris sapientia scrupis.
Hadr. Jun., "Emblem." xxxvii.

(Lofty wisdom is circled round with rugged rocks.)

We must go back some hours in the progress of this narrative. It was the
first faint and gradual break of the summer dawn; and two men stood in
a balcony overhanging a garden fragrant with the scents of the awakening
flowers. The stars had not yet left the sky,--the birds were yet sil