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Updated: July 8, 2025
Then the hunchback hurried away on his errand, leaving Gambardella to take care of Ortensia, who was already getting in. 'To Santa Prassede, said the Bravo to the coachman, in a tone meant for Ortensia's ears. Then he got in, shut the door, and seated himself beside her, bolt upright, with his rapier between his knees, and his hands clasped on the hilt.
I presume you wish the young lady and the woman to be brought back to you, when the singer is dead. 'Precisely. I shall say that she has been spending a week with a relation of her mother's who is the Abbess of the Ursuline Nuns in Ravenna. 'Did you say the Ursulines in Ravenna, my lord? asked Gambardella slowly.
The portress opened one of the doors and shut it as soon as Gambardella had entered. He walked up and down the long gloomy room while he waited; the two grated windows were far above reach and opened upon a blank wall opposite.
When he was gone, Trombin and Gambardella looked at each other in silence; the dark man's thin lips, visible on each side of the point of his nose, but quite shaded by it in the middle, were smiling faintly, but Trombin's cherubic countenance expressed, or caricatured, the utter beatitude of one of those painted angels to which his friend always compared him.
Gambardella dipped his fingers into the nearest holy-water basin and held them out dripping for Stradella to touch before he crossed himself, as the others also did; then all followed him up the side aisle to the door of the sacristy, where they waited till the singing ceased.
'It is absolutely impossible, said Trombin gravely to his companion, when Stradella paused at last. 'Absolutely, assented Gambardella. 'What is impossible? the singer asked carelessly. 'To sing better than you, answered Gambardella with a short laugh.
'The truth is, he said at last, 'I should not wish you to start till the city has been thoroughly searched by the police. As you wisely observed, I think, a man of Stradella's reputation cannot remain long concealed, and will be more easily found next week than to-morrow. 'I believe, answered Gambardella politely, 'that the remark was yours, and it is a wise one.
'Before we left Venice the town was ringing with your exploit, as it has echoed with your praises these three months past. My friend Count Gambardella and I are amongst your most ardent admirers, Signor Maestro, and I may say in confidence that we have a private grudge against the Senator Pignaver. You may imagine our delight on hearing that you had carried off his niece!
As for anything the courtier might do on the spur of the moment, Trombin knew that Gambardella and Tommaso were in the vineyard, ready to stop any mischief. Ortensia was lying by the wall where she had fallen, but was regaining consciousness, for her limbs stirred now and then, and as the Bravo looked at her she opened her eyes and turned her head.
'Unless it be paid in cash, suggested Gambardella. 'Cash, answered Trombin enigmatically, 'is one of the forces of nature. A week later fashionable Rome was gathered together at the Palazzo Riario to a feast of poetry and music.
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