"
Gelsomina ceased to tremble, and her mild eye brightened.
"The council is terrible," she answered, "but it must be more terrible
to desert one to whom you have vowed duty and love at the altar!"
"Hast thou the means of concealing us, kind girl," interrupted Donna
Florinda, "and canst thou, when this tumult shall be quieted, in any
manner help us to further secresy or flight?"
"Lady, I have none. Even the streets and squares of Venice are nearly
strangers to me. Santissima Maria! what would I give to know the ways of
the town as well as my cousin Annina, who passes at will from her
father's shop to the Lido, and from St. Mark's to the Rialto, as her
pleasure suits. I will send for my cousin, who will counsel us in this
fearful strait!"
"Thy cousin! Hast thou a cousin named Annina?"
"Lady, Annina. My mother's sister's child."
"The daughter of a wine-seller called Tomaso Torti?"
"Do the noble dames of the city take such heed of their inferiors! This
will charm my cousin, for she has great desires to be noted by the
great."
"And does thy cousin come hither?"
"Rarely, lady--we are not of much intimacy. I suppose Annina finds a
girl, simple and uninstructed as I, unworthy of her company. But she
will not refuse to aid us in a danger like this. I know she little loves
the Republic, for we have had words on its acts, and my cousin has been
bolder of speech about them, than befits one of her years, in this
prison.
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