An obvious effect was perceptible upon the countenances of the soldiers in the hall when this command was uttered. The outlaw himself was bound--this time his bonds did not give way--and when he heard the words, they seemed to paralyse--to engender a doubt that he miscomprehended--rather than to alarm him. He turned his eye rapidly from his kneeling wife to the judges. Its expression was not of humility, and scarcely that even of entreaty. His appeal was not that of a culprit to the mercy of a judge, but the demand which man makes upon man--upon the common feeling of his fellows--"In the name of God!" was all that he exclaimed, "you cannot mean it?" Nevertheless, however, the men in black surrounded Aurelia, who stood motionless, attempting neither effort nor remonstrance; and having raised her from the ground, were proceeding to cut the laces which held her bodice; for a part of the horrible system was, that all who suffered, male or female, were stripped naked before the application of the question. The soldiers, though, from their cold silence and averted looks, they evidently disliked their duty, showed no disposition to flinch from it; and a passionate flood of tears burst from the eyes of the unhappy Aurelia, as the first infamous preparations for adding degradation to the tortures which she was to endure, were completed. The cold sweat poured in streams down Arionelli's forehead.--"In the name of Heaven," he cried, "hold but one moment! If you are men, you will not do this deed! Gonfalonière! my Lord di Vasari! Count of Arestino! will you--as your souls may answer it--will you degrade this helpless and innocent female--and in the presence of her husband? Villains! cowards! slaves!" pursued the outlaw, violently, seeing that his words produced no cessation of the proceedings,--"have you not this frame, more noble than your own, but on which you may trample, still unbent and unbroken? Cannot you burst these sinews with a nod? Rend and destroy, with but a word, these limbs, whose force, naked as they are, and even in bonds, your pale hearts quail at? Am I not bound before you? Will not these miscreant agents delight to crush a frame to ruin, which shames, and shows their own too mean and insignificant? and yet will you--dare you--touch such a piece of Heaven's handiwork as that woman! My Lord Gonfalonière--you have daughters--Man--if you are one--look at her! Is she more fit than they are for a deed of blood?--Di Vasari!--Gonsalvo!--Villain!--Usurer!--you are a man--young--passionate--can you look upon such a form as hers--and if she had sought your very life a thousand times--would you see it mangled, disgraced, and ruined?--Gonfalonière!--Count Arestino!--Mercy! This wretch I waste my words on. If he can do the deed--no matter with what cause--my words must be too useless to dissuade him from it!"