"Wilt thou impart the manner of this escape, Jacopo?" he demanded.
"Remember, thou hast still a life to redeem!"
"Signore, it is scarce worth the trouble. But to do your pleasure,
nothing shall be concealed."
Jacopo then recounted in simple and undisguised terms, the entire means
employed by Don Camillo in effecting his escape--his hopes, his
disappointments, and his final success. In this narrative nothing was
concealed but the place in which the ladies had temporarily taken
refuge, and the name of Gelsomina. Even the attempt of Giacomo Gradenigo
on the life of the Neapolitan, and the agency of the Hebrew, were fully
exposed. None listened to this explanation so intently as the young
husband. Notwithstanding his public duties, his pulses quickened as the
prisoner dwelt on the different chances of the lovers, and when their
final union was proclaimed, he felt his heart bound with delight. On the
other hand, his more practised colleagues heard the detail of the Bravo
with politic coolness. The effect of all factitious systems is to render
the feelings subservient to expediency. Convention and fiction take
place of passion and truth, and like the Mussulman with his doctrine of
predestination, there is no one more acquiescent in defeat, than he who
has obtained an advantage in the face of nature and justice; his
resignation being, in common, as perfect as his previous arrogance was
insupportable.
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