_Vanna._ I felt a change, too.... I marveled that I could speak to you as I have spoken since the first moment.... I am silent by nature--I have never spoken thus to any man, unless it be to Marco, Guido's father.... And even with him it is not the same. He has a thousand dreams that take up all his mind, ... and we have talked but a few times. The others have always a desire in their eyes that will not suffer one to tell them that one loves them and would fain know what they have in their hearts. In your eyes, too, a longing burns; but it is not the same--it does not affright me nor fill me with loathing. I felt at once that I knew you before I remembered that I had ever seen you.... _Vanna_, awed by the character and personality of this despised and hated outlaw, pleads with him to come with her to Pisa under the protection of herself and her husband. She is sure that he will be safe with them, and that he will be hailed as the redeemer of the people of Pisa. Like innocent children they walk to their doom. _Vanna_ is honored by the people whom she has saved, but scorned by her husband who, like the true male, does not credit her story. _Vanna._ Hear me, I say! I have never lied--but to-day, above all days, I tell the deepest truth, the truth that can be told but once and brings life or death.... Hearken, Guido, then--and look upon me, if you have never known me until this hour, the first and only hour when you have it in your power to love me as I would be loved. I speak in the name of our life, of all that I am, of all that you are to me.... Be strong enough to believe that which is incredible. This man has spared my honor.... He had all power--I was given over to him. Yet he has not touched me--I have issued from his tent as I might from my brother's house.... I gave him one only kiss upon the brow--and he gave it me again.