"I travelled slowly, I rested several times in large towns. I am nervous too, although I am no actress, but daily intercourse with a _prima donna_ upsets one's nerves. Do not be offended, dear child, but even the finest particles of dust, which one swallows in your theatre, are like _aqua toffana_. I remained one day in Berlin, in Nuremberg, in Augsburg! "How I rejoiced when I saw the Alps again, dangerous as was the drive through the snow passes. "Then I felt the mild soft spring breath of Italy when the steamboat carried me across the glorious lake. From Stresa I went over the mountains to Orta--how my heart beat, when the waves of the lake surged at my feet, and the little island with the rocky castle lay before me. "I had had leisure enough on my way to think of a plan as to how I could best execute my task, a task that was full of danger for body and soul; but for the soul there is always absolution. Many plans that rose in my mind I rejected as too daring, as impracticable, much I must leave to chance and circumstances. I then made enquiries for the two witnesses to the marriage, whose names you wrote down for me. Signor Bonardo has long been dead, and the beautiful Orsola eloped with a Greek, and was quite lost sight of. No danger is threatened from that quarter. "I visited the chaplain of the little church of San Giulio, he was a young man not unsusceptible to my charms. His predecessor, the old priest, had just died. For a long time he had been in confinement in the cloister, and under examination. In the nearest diocese a trial was to be instituted against him for forgery, of which he had been guilty. The chaplain himself conducted me up the high steps by the lake into the sacristy of the church, where he searched through the registry to reply to my question as to your marriage day. If ever I exerted my eyes I did so then. Eagerly I followed his movements, noted the book, the number of the page, the entrance to the sacristy. I thanked the chaplain, the good man even became tender towards me, and when he bestowed his blessing upon me he kissed me upon my brow. "It was still early morning, and a long day of twelve hours lay before me. People might, perhaps, have taken me for a love-sick dreamer if they had seen me wander upon the woodland paths behind the little town. I could not remain long in the _Leone d'oro_, feverish restlessness had taken possession of me. "I scrambled up the path with its numerous chapels leading to the pilgrims' church of San Franciscus. I prayed here and there. I did penance for that which I was about to begin. I felt as if I belonged not to the bright day, not to this glorious nature! How exquisite was the view over the lake from the Sacro Monte, upon the chestnut and walnut woods of Pella, upon the high Alps of Monte Rosa, what a breath of Spring quivered yonder in the fruit hedge and made the lake ripple! With my sinister purpose I seemed to be out of place in this bright world!