"The end is nearer than
thou thinkest. No matter; turn the key, that we may go in."
The hand of Gelsomina lingered on the lock, but admonished by his
impatient eye, she complied, and they entered the cell.
"Father!" exclaimed the Bravo, hastening to the side of a pallet that
lay on the floor.
The attenuated and feeble form of an old man rose at the word, and an
eye which, while it spoke mental feebleness, was at that moment even
brighter than that of his son, glared on the faces of Gelsomina and her
companion.
"Thou hast not suffered, as I had feared, by this sudden change,
father!" continued the latter, kneeling by the side of the straw. "Thine
eye, and cheek, and countenance are better, than in the damp caves
below!"
"I am happy here," returned the prisoner; "there is light, and though
they have given me too much of it, thou canst never know, my boy, the
joy of looking at the day, after so long a night."
"He is better, Gelsomina. They have not yet destroyed him. See! his eye
is bright even, and his cheek has a glow!"
"They are ever so, after passing the winter in the lower dungeons,"
whispered the gentle girl.
"Hast thou news for me, boy? What tidings from thy mother?"
Jacopo bowed his head to conceal the anguish occasioned by this
question, which he now heard for the hundredth time.
"She is happy, father--happy as one can be, who so well loves thee, when
away from thy side.
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