Pagina 819 di 1118

Some time after the receipt of this letter, Agnes sent Renzo an

answer, with the fifty crowns that had been assigned him by Lucy.

At the sight of so much gold, he did not know what to think; and,

with his mind agitated by reflections by no means agreeable, he

went in search of his amanuensis, requesting him to interpret the

letter, and afford him a clue to the developement of the mystery.

The amanuensis of Agnes, after some complaints on the want of

clearness in Renzo's epistle, described the wonderful history of

this person (so he called the Unknown), and thus accounted for

the fifty crowns; then he mentioned the vow, but only

periphrastically; adding more explicitly the advice, to set his

heart at rest, and not to think of Lucy any more.