“Ay, ay! time will show!” replied Ludovico, resuming the pipe, which he was in the habit of holding half-extinguished under his thumb, during his colloquies with the Count; and after a puff or two, turning on his heel to depart. “Good Ludovico! I have hitherto found you so kind—so charitable! Can you do nothing for my assistance?” persisted Charney. “_Trondidio!_” answered the jailer, trying to conceal by an oath the emotion gaining upon his feelings, “can’t you leave me a moment’s peace—you and your accursed gilly-flower! As to the _poverina_, I forgive her—’tis no fault of Picciola! but as to you, whose obstinacy will certainly be the death of the poor thing——” “What would you have me do, then?” exclaimed the Count. “Petition the commandant, I tell you, petition the commandant!” cried Ludovico. “Never!” “There you are again; but if your pride is so tetchy, will you give _me_ leave to speak to him?” “No,” replied Charney; “I forbid you.” “_You_ forbid me!” cried the jailer. “_D——e!_ is it _your_ orders I am to obey? If I choose to speak to him, who is to prevent me?” “Ludovico!” “Set your mind at ease; I am not going to undertake any such fool’s errand. What business is it of mine? Let her live, let her die; _che m’ importa?_ If you want to put an end to the plant, ’tis your own affair—_Buona notte!_” “But has your commandant sense enough to understand me?” demanded the Count, detaining him. “Why not? do you take him for a kinserlick? Tell him your story straight on end: pack it into pretty little sentences, like a scholar who knows what he is about; for now’s the time to put your learning to some use. Why shouldn’t _he_ enter into your love for a flower as well as I have? Besides, I shall be there to put in a word. I can tell him what a capital tisane is to be made of the herb. The commandant’s an ailing man himself. He has got a sharp fit of the rheumatism upon him at this very moment, which will perhaps make him enter into the case.” Charney still hesitated; but Ludovico pointed with one of his knowing winks to Picciola, sick and suffering; and, with a gesture of anxiety from the Count, off went the jailer on his errand. Some minutes afterwards, a man in a half-military, half-civil uniform, made his appearance in the court, with an inkstand and a sheet of paper bearing a government stamp. As Ludovico had announced, this person remained present while Charney wrote out his petition; and received it sealed into his hands, and, with a respectful bow, departed, carrying off the inkstand. [Illustration]