"Lorenza knows what is in it?"
"Of course."
"Well, then, tell the princess what it says, that she may not believe that I deceive her in asserting that you love me. I want you to tell her."
Appearing to make an effort, but without looking at the note, unfolding it or bringing it to her eyes, she read, word for word, what the princess had seen without speaking it aloud.
"This is hard to believe," said the superior. "And I do not believe you, from what is supernatural and inexplicable in what happens."
"It was this very letter which determined me to hurry on our wedding," said Count Fenix, without heeding the interruption. "I love Lorenza as much as she loves me. In our roaming life, accidents might happen. If I died, I wanted my property to be my dear one's; so we were united when we reached Strasburg."
"But she told me that she was not your wife."
"Lorenza," said the count, without replying to the abbess, and turning to the Italian, "do you remember where and when we were married?"
"Yes; in the St. John's Chapel of Strasburg Cathedral, on the third of May."