"The road is not very pleasant! Close beside the shore of the lake there is a cave--my blood-hound found it; it is overgrown with thistles and bushes, the little one worked with an axe and sickle all last night to clear the passage. One must stoop to pass through. It leads to the old tower, which, with its ivy-clad walls, casts its shadow below upon the moonlit shrubs in the park. It was the watch tower, the battle and sally-tower of the knights, and the hidden road ensures them flight in case of defeat. From the tower a secret walled passage leads into the Castle. It is covered with rubbish and ruins, and there are awkward steps to go up and down. But then a little masked winding-staircase in the wall leads up to this mirror door. My wonderfully clever seal discovered all this. It took us some time last night before we could find out the mechanism of this door. We knew that these rooms were destined for you. We tried a long time, but I am clever at such secrets, and beneath its external disguise found the spot where one must press so as to make the wooden panel move and slide back. The little one waits below with a dark lantern--the boat is tied up close to the egress of the hollow way. It will cost a few bruises and torn clothes, then we shall sail over the lake and away over the Russian frontier." "You are out of your senses, Baluzzi!" "Shall I remind you of our past, of our agreement? We were married secretly. You were a singer whose fame was waxing. I, an inferior chorus singer, who could do no better. I saw myself, that your prospects would be damaged if the world knew of our marriage. Soon I resigned the miserable position of an incapable helper's helper in the troupe of singers at the theatre, and I must confess it, gave myself up to a somewhat dissipated life. I drank and gambled. I became a croupier in Monaco, your fame was augmenting. Our paths led farther and farther asunder. All the same, I loved you fervently, but I perceived that your love diminished daily. You were ashamed of me. You began to avoid me, to fly from me. I required money, much money for my habits of life. They are as respectable and distinguished as those of a well-born prince who squanders his heritage. How often was I not in embarrassments enough to make one's hair stand on end, badly in debt. It was at that time we made an agreement that I should avoid you as long as you were at the theatre, but, that in return, the greater portion of your abundant gains should always be paid over to me. So long as you were at the theatre--that was the condition. Recollect it! No evasions! I am a man of my word, and I shall see that faith is kept with me also. _Cospetto!_ In my hand I hold the power to compel you." "I, too, kept my word," said Giulia, "and more than this, I have often starved that you might live luxuriously." "For two years," said Baluzzi, "when you were here in Prussia during the summer I was left without news of you."