fell into the trap. 'Give me the letter, Signor, and quick.'

"'It is at a hotel close by; come there, and you will have a guinea for
your trouble.'

"So Leonard walked our gentleman into my hotel; and having taken him into
my dressing-room, turned the key and there left him. On learning this
capture, the prince and myself hastened to see our prisoner. He was at
first sullen and silent; but when the prince disclosed his rank and name
(you know the mysterious terror the meaner Italians feel for an Austrian
magnate), his countenance changed, and his courage fell. What with
threats and what with promises, we soon obtained all that we sought to
know; and an offered bribe, which I calculated at ten times the amount
the rogue could ever expect to receive from his spendthrift master,
finally bound him cheerfully to our service, soul and body. Thus we
learned the dismal place to which your noble daughter had been so
perfidiously ensnared. We learned also that the count had not yet
visited her, hoping much from the effect that prolonged incarceration
might have in weakening her spirit and inducing her submission.
Peschiera was to go to the house at midnight, thence to transport her to
the vessel. Beppo had received orders to bring the carriage to Leicester
Square, where Peschiera would join him. The count (as Leonard surmised)
had taken skulking refuge at the hotel in which Randal Leslie had
disappeared. The prince, Leonard, Frank (who was then in the hotel), and
myself held a short council. Should we go at once to the house, and, by
the help of the police, force an entrance, and rescue your daughter?
This was a very hazardous resource. The abode, which, at various times,
had served for the hiding-place of men haunted by the law, abounded,
according to our informant, in subterranean vaults and secret passages,
and had more than one outlet on the river. At our first summons at the