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The messenger returned sooner than his master expected him with

the reply of Egidio; the enterprise was easy and safe; the

Unknown had only to send a carriage with two or three bravoes,

well disguised; Egidio took charge of the rest. The Unknown,

whatever passed in his mind, gave orders to Nibbio to arrange

every thing, and to set out immediately on the expedition.

If, to perform the horrible service which had been required of

him, Egidio had depended only on his ordinary means, he would not

certainly have sent back so explicit an answer. But in the asylum

of the convent, where every thing appeared as an obstacle, the

villain had a means known to himself alone; and that which would

have been an insurmountable difficulty to others was to him an

instrument of success. We have related how the unhappy signora

once lent an ear to his discourse, and the reader may have

surmised that this was not the last time; it was only the first

step in the path of abomination and blood. The same voice which

then addressed her, become imperious through crime, now imposed

on her the sacrifice of the innocent girl who had been intrusted

to her care.