Manfredi smiled sadly, and replied: "You forget that I am talking of Tuscany?" "True, my dear sir, true; but go on." "The poor boy!" said Ethel, mournfully. "Those odious, hateful Austrians!" commented Rose. "D----n them!" was the addendum of Captain Jack Phillips, while Manfredi resumed: "In this horrible condition, crushed for a time in body and in soul, and drowned in tears, he remained, while all access was denied to him, even to our parents; but ultimately he was found by the good Padre Marraccini, who had come to visit the sick prisoners, and who, by chance or mistake, was shown by Corporal Schwartz into the atrocious dungeon where our poor little Attilio lay. "Undeterred by the grim Croat, who carried a smoky lamp, the light of which scared the rats and toads, who were seen hurrying away to their dark and slimy recesses, the child leaped up with a cry of joy, and hastened towards the padre, who was our father's friend, but in hastening fell, for his chain was short, and cramped the action of his limbs. "'Water, Padre Marraccini!' he exclaimed hoarsely, 'water; for I am dying of thirst, and they have _salted_ what is in that pitcher.' "With great difficulty the commiserating padre procured him some water in the hollow of a broken bottle; the corporal would give nothing else, and it cut the poor boy's mouth, so that he drank his own blood, his tears, and the water together. "'My mother, my father--are they well?' he asked. "'Yes.' "'It seems so long since I saw them--the day before yesterday when I went to school,' continued Attilio, weeping, with his head on the padre's shoulder. 'And Adrian, my brother--did they hurt him, for he changed jackets with me?' "'Hush!' said the padre, glancing at the stolid Croat who stood by them, with a lamp flaring in one hand, and his drawn bayonet glittering in the other. "'Get me out of this, Padre Marraccini; pray get me out of this place, and home to my mother. Oh, my mother! my mother!' "'I will, dear Attilio, I will--that is if I can.' "'I shall take courage. I shall be a man!' "'Do, until I return from the commandant.' "With dire forebodings in his heart, the poor old padre hastened to the count, whom he found seated at his wine, after dinner, with several Austrian officers, in the saloon of the bishop's palace. "After enduring considerable annoyance--even insult--from the Croatian sentinels and German lackeys--insults which he endured with contempt, perhaps, rather than with meekness, and feeling himself the servant of a higher master than even the Emperor of Austria--he was admitted to an audience, and he begged--he dared not, in such a presence, demand--'the release of the child Attilio Manfredi, who had been seized by the soldiers of the garrison.' "'Seized, Fra Marraccini, for attempting to seduce them by money to desert their colours, in the name of the rebel Magyar, Kossuth,' replied the count, sternly.