Then, oh, you blessed ministers above,
Keep me in patience; and, in ripen'd time,
Unfold the evil which is here wrapt up
In countenance.
SHAKESPEARE
Annette came almost breathless to Emily's apartment in the morning. 'O ma'amselle!' said
she, in broken sentences, 'what news I have to tell! I have found out who the prisoner is--
but he was no prisoner, neither;--he that was shut up in the chamber I told you of. I must
think him a ghost, forsooth!'
'Who was the prisoner?' enquired Emily, while her thoughts glanced back to the
circumstance of the preceding night.
'You mistake, ma'am,' said Annette; 'he was not a prisoner, after all.'
'Who is the person, then?'
'Holy Saints!' rejoined Annette; 'How I was surprised! I met him just now, on the rampart
below, there. I never was so surprised in my life! Ah! ma'amselle! this is a strange place!
I should never have done wondering, if I was to live here an hundred years. But, as I was
saying, I met him just now on the rampart, and I was thinking of nobody less than of
him.'
'This trifling is insupportable,' said Emily; 'prythee, Annette, do not torture my patience
any longer.'
'Nay, ma'amselle, guess--guess who it was; it was somebody you know very well.'
'I cannot guess,' said Emily impatiently.
'Nay, ma'amselle, I'll tell you something to guess by--A tall Signor, with a longish face,
who walks so stately, and used to wear such a high feather in his hat; and used often to
look down upon the ground, when people spoke to him; and to look at people from under
his eyebrows, as it were, all so dark and frowning. You have seen him, often and often, at
Venice, ma'am. Then he was so intimate with the Signor, too. And, now I think of it, I
wonder what he could be afraid of in this lonely old castle, that he should shut himself up
for. But he is come abroad now, for I met him on the rampart just this minute. I trembled
when I saw him, for I always was afraid of him, somehow; but I determined I would not
let him see it; so I went up to him, and made him a low curtesy, "You are welcome to the
castle, Signor Orsino," said I.'
