"Holy virgin," cried Petro, "she's dead!"

"Say not so," eagerly exclaimed her uncle.

"God forgive us!" answered Petro.

"Ay, we have need of forgiveness, if we have brought on such
extremity," said the uncle, trying to raise the lifeless head of
their inanimate victim.

Leaving the guilty, nephew and uncle for a while, we will take the
reader back for a moment in the thread of our story.






CHAPTER XI.

THE INTERCEPTED LETTER.





Any man that can write may answer a letter.

-Romeo and Juliet.