resolve, that has exposed me to his suspicions and to my country's wrath.
But my main idea was to save him, my early friend, from death, and my
country from fruitless massacre.

"I withdrew from the intended revolt. I sought at once the head of the
Austrian government in Italy, and made terms for the lives of Alphonso
and of the other more illustrious chiefs, which otherwise would have been
forfeited. I obtained permission to undertake myself the charge of
securing my kinsman in order to place him in safety, and to conduct him
to a foreign land, in an exile that would cease when the danger was
dispelled. But unhappily he deemed that I only sought to destroy him.
He fled from my friendly pursuit. The soldiers with me were attacked by
an intermeddling Englishman; your father escaped from Italy, concealing
his retreat; and the character of his flight counteracted my efforts to
obtain his pardon. The government conferred on me half his revenues,
holding the other half at its pleasure. I accepted the offer in order to
save his whole heritage from confiscation. That I did not convey to him
what I pined to do,--namely, the information that I held but in trust
what was bestowed by the government, and the full explanation of what
seemed blamable in my conduct,--was necessarily owing to the secrecy he
maintained. I could not discover his refuge; but I never ceased to plead
for his recall. This year only I have partially succeeded. He can be
restored to his heritage and rank, on one proviso,--a guarantee for his
loyalty. That guarantee the government has named: it is the alliance of
his only child with one whom the government can trust. It was the
interest of all the Italian nobility that the representation of a House
so great falling to a female should not pass away wholly from the direct
line,--in a word, that you should ally yourself with a kinsman. But one
kinsman, and he the next in blood, presented himself. In short, Alphonso
regains all that he lost on the day in which his daughter gives her hand