are here."

"But, sir, you must answer it, and I cannot stop now. Do it at your
leisure. Only take heed, when you hear any one coming, you will
know if it be I by my singing, pretty loudly, the tune, Sognai mi
gera un gato. You need, then, fear nothing, and may keep the letter
quietly in your pocket. But should you not hear this song, set it
down for a mark that it cannot be me, or that some one is with me.
Then, in a moment, out with it, don't trust to any concealment, in
case of a search; out with it, tear it into a thousand bits, and
throw it through the window."

"Depend upon me; I see you are prudent, I will be so too."

"Yet you called me a stupid wretch."

"You do right to reproach me," I replied, shaking him by the hand,
"and I beg your pardon." He went away, and I began to read

"I am (and here followed the name) one of your admirers: I have all
your Francesca da Rimini by heart. They arrested me for--(and here
he gave the reason with the date)--and I would give, I know not how
many pounds of my blood to have the pleasure of being with you, or
at least in a dungeon near yours, in order that we might converse
together. Since I heard from Tremerello, so we shall call our
confidant, that you, sir, were a prisoner, and the cause of your
arrest, I have longed to tell you how deeply I lament your
misfortune, and that no one can feel greater attachment to you than
myself. Have you any objection to accept the offer I make, namely,
that we should try to lighten the burden of our solitude by writing