he secretary then read the letters and put them in a drawer
of his bureau, telling him that if he had taken the letters he would have
been discovered and have lost his life.

I pretended to be overwhelmed, and covering my face with my hands I knelt
down at the bedside before the picture of the Virgin, and asked, her to
avenge me on the wretch who had broken the most sacred oaths. I
afterwards lay down on the bed, my face to the wall, and remained there
the whole day without moving, without speaking a word, and pretending not
to hear the tears, cries, and protestations of repentance uttered by the
villain. I played my part in the comedy I had sketched out to perfection.
In the night I wrote to Father Balbi to come at two o'clock in the
afternoon, not a minute sooner or later, to work for four hours, and not
a minute more. "On this precision," I wrote, "our liberty depends and if
you observe it all will be well."

It was the 25th of October, and the time for me to carry out my design or
to give it up for ever drew near. The State Inquisitors and their
secretary went every year to a village on the mainland, and passed there
the first three days of November. Lawrence, taking advantage of his
masters' absence, did not fail to get drunk every evening, and did not
appear at The Leads in the morning till a late hour.

Advised of these circumstances, I chose this time to make my escape, as I
was certain that my flight would not be noticed till late in the morning.
Another reason for my determination to hurry my escape, when I could no
longer doubt the villainy of my detestable companion, seems to me to be
worthy of record.

The greatest relief of a man in the midst of misfortune is the hope of
escaping from it. He sighs for the hour when his sorrows are to end; he
thinks he can hasten it by his prayers; he will do anything to know when
his torments shall cease. The sufferer, impatient and enfeebled, is
mostly inclined to superstition. "God," says he, "knows the time, and God
may reveal it to me, it matters not how." Whilst he is in this state he
is ready to trust in divination in any manner his fancy leads him, and is
more or less disposed to believe in the oracle of which he makes choice.

I then was in this state of mind; but not knowing how to make use of the
Bible to inform me of the moment in which I should recover my liberty, I
determined to consult the divine Orlando Furioso, which I had read a
hundred times, which I