of apathy, and in consequence of the superstitious ideas which had
crowded in my mind the previous night I imagined that the innocence of
that young girl was under the special protection of Heaven, and that if I
had dared to rob her of her virginity the most rapid and terrible death
would have been my punishment.

At all events, thanks to my youth and my exalted ideas, I fancied that
through my self-denying resolutions the father would not be so great a
dupe, and the daughter not so unhappy, unless the result should prove as
unfortunate for her as it had been for poor Lucy, of Pasean.

The moment that Javotte became in my eyes an object of holy horror, my
departure was decided. The resolution was all the more irrevocable
because I fancied some old peasant might have witnessed all my tricks in
the middle of the magic ring, in which case the most Holy, or, if you
like, the most infernal, Inquisition, receiving information from him,
might very well have caught me and enhanced my fame by some splendid
'auto-da-fe' in which I had not the slightest wish to be the principal
actor. It struck me as so entirely within the limits of probability that
I sent at once for Franzia and Capitani, and in the presence of the
unpolluted virgin I told them that I had obtained from the seven spirits
watching over the treasure all the necessary particulars, but that I had
been compelled to enter into an agreement with them to delay the
extraction of the treasure placed under their guardianship. I told
Franzia that I would hand to him in writing all the information which I
had compelled the spirits to give me. I produced, in reality, a few
minutes afterwards, a document similar to the one I had concocted at the
public library in Mantua, adding that the treasure consisted of diamonds,
rubies, emeralds, and one hundred thousand pounds of gold dust. I made
him take an oath on my pocket-book to wait for me, and not to have faith