Pagina 312 de 1118

As a pack of blood-hounds, after having in vain tracked the hare,

return desponding towards their master, with their ears down, and

tails hanging, so, in this night of confusion, returned the

bravoes to the palace of Don Roderick, who was pacing, in the

dark, the floor of an upper uninhabited chamber. Full of

impatience and uncertainty as to the issue of the expedition, and

not without anxiety for the possible consequences, his ear was

attentive to every sound, and his eye to every movement on the

esplanade. This was the most daring piece of villany he had ever

undertaken; but he felt that the precautions he had used would

preserve him from suspicion. "And who will dare to come here, and

ask if she is not in this palace? Should this young fellow do so,

he will be well received, I promise him. Let the friar come! yea,

let him come. If the old woman presumes so far, she shall be sent

to Bergamo. As for the law, I do fear it not; the podestà is

neither a boy nor a fool! Pshaw!