Anna desired an interview with Vittoria. It was to know the conditions
and cause of the duel between Angelo Guidascarpi and Captain Weisspriess,
and whither Angelo had fled. "In other words, you cry for vengeance
under the name of justice," Laura phrased it, and put up a prayer for
Angelo's escape.

The countess rebuked her. "It is men like Angelo who are a scandal to
Italy."

"Proclaimed so; but by what title are they judged?" Laura retorted.
"I have heard that his duel with Count Paul was fair, and that the
grounds for it were just. Deplore it; but to condemn an Italian
gentleman without hearing his personal vindication, is infamous; nay, it
is Austrian. I know next to nothing of the story. Countess Ammiani has
assured me that the brothers have a clear defence--not from your Vienna
point of view: Italy and Vienna are different sides of the shield."

Vittoria spoke most humbly before Anna; her sole irritating remark was,
that even if she were aware of the direction of Angelo's flight, she
would not betray him.

The duchess did her utmost to induce her to see that he was a criminal,
outlawed from common charity. "These Italians are really like the Jews,"
she said to Anna; "they appear to me to hold together by a bond of race:
you cannot get them to understand that any act can be infamous when one
of their blood is guilty of it."

Anna thought gloomily: "Then, why do you ally yourself to them?"

The duchess, with Anna, Lena, and Wilfrid, drove to the Ultenthal.