are you to serve my father, how restore him to his country? This is what
you promised!"

"If you consent to one sacrifice, I will fulfil that promise. We are
arrived."

The carriage stopped before a tall, dull house, divided from other houses
by a high wall that appeared to enclose a yard, and standing at the end
of a narrow lane, which was bounded on the one side by the Thames. In
that quarter the river was crowded with gloomy, dark-looking vessels and
craft, all lying lifeless under the wintry sky.

The driver dismounted and rang the bell. Two swarthy Italian faces
presented themselves at the threshold. Beatrice descended lightly, and
gave her hand to Violante. "Now, here we shall be secure," said she;
"and here a few minutes may suffice to decide your fate."

As the door closed on Violante, who, now waking to suspicion, to alarm,
looked fearfully round the dark and dismal hall, Beatrice turned: "Let
the carriage wait."

The Italian who received the order bowed and smiled; but when the two
ladies had ascended the stairs he re-opened the street-door, and said to
the driver, "Back to the count, and say, 'All is safe.'"

The carriage drove off. The man who had given this order barred and
locked the door, and, taking with him the huge key, plunged into the
mystic recesses of the basement and disappeared. The hall, thus left
solitary, had the grim aspect of a prison,--the strong door sheeted with
iron, the rugged stone stairs, lighted by a high window grimed with the