"
The Bravo endeavored to smile, as if he appreciated her kindness; but he
only succeeded in making her understand his desire to go on. The eye of
the gentle-hearted girl lost its gleam of hope in an expression of
sorrow, and she obeyed.
CHAPTER XIX.
"But let us to the roof,
And, when thou hast surveyed the sea, the land,
Visit the narrow cells that cluster there,
As in a place of tombs."
ST. MARK'S PLACE.
We shall not attempt to thread the vaulted galleries, the gloomy
corridors, and all the apartments, through which the keeper's daughter
led her companion. Those who have ever entered an extensive prison, will
require no description to revive the feeling of pain which it excited,
by barred windows, creaking hinges, grating bolts, and all those other
signs, which are alike the means and evidence of incarceration. The
building, unhappily like most other edifices intended to repress the
vices of society, was vast, strong, and intricate within, although, as
has been already intimated, of a chaste and simple beauty externally,
that might seem to have been adopted in mockery of its destination.
Gelsomina entered a low, narrow, and glazed gallery, when she stopped.
"Thou soughtest me, as wont, beneath the water-gate, Carlo," she asked,
"at the usual hour?"
"I should not have entered the prison had I found thee there, for thou
knowest I would be little seen.
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