But when I
pulled the plank a little aside and looked down, I saw a girl unknown
to me--until I recognized her for one of those who lived above the
archway at the entrance of Messer' Fazio's court. Lauretta had told
her, swearing her to be secret, and she was here in pity. She called
herself Gioconda; and I bless her, for your sake.
"She fetched me bread, milk, and a little wine. But for her--for
Messer' Fazio came never near us, and the actors, she told me, had
decamped--we should both have perished. The cold lasted for ten
days; I cannot tell how you endured it; but at the end of them I
hoped you might recover, and with that I tried to think of some plan
for escaping from Genoa. The worst was, I had no money. . . ."
The Princess paused, and shivered a little.
"That cold . . . it is in my bones yet. I feel as though the least
touch of it now would kill me . . . and I want to live. Ah, my love,
turn your eyes from me while I tell you what next I did!
The crown . . . it belonged to Corsica. I had denied your right to
it; but you had won it back from dishonour, and I remembered that in
the band of it were jewels, the price of which might save you.
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