“My lady wanted me, ma’amselle,” replied Annette in some confusion; “I will go and get the wood.”
“No,” said Caterina, “that is my business,” and left the room instantly, while Annette would have followed; but, being called back, she began to talk very loud, and laugh, and seemed afraid to trust a pause of silence.
Caterina soon returned with the wood, and then, when the cheerful blaze once more animated the room, and this servant had withdrawn, Emily asked Annette, whether she had made the enquiry she bade her. “Yes, ma’amselle,” said Annette, “but not a soul knows anything about the matter: and old Carlo—I watched him well, for they say he knows strange things—old Carlo looked so as I don’t know how to tell, and he asked me again and again, if I was sure the door was ever unfastened. Lord, says I—am I sure I am alive? And as for me, ma’am, I am all astounded, as one may say, and would no more sleep in this chamber, than I would on the great cannon at the end of the east rampart.”
“And what objection have you to that cannon, more than to any of the rest?” said Emily smiling: “the best would be rather a hard bed.”
“Yes, ma’amselle, any of them would be hard enough for that matter; but they do say, that something has been seen in the dead of night, standing beside the great cannon, as if to guard it.”
“Well! my good Annette, the people who tell such stories, are happy in having you for an auditor, for I perceive you believe them all.”
“Dear ma’amselle! I will show you the very cannon; you can see it from these windows!”
“Well,” said Emily, “but that does not prove, that an apparition guards it.”
“What! not if I show you the very cannon! Dear ma’am, you will believe nothing.”
“Nothing probably upon this subject, but what I see,” said Emily.—“Well, ma’am, but you shall see it, if you will only step this way to the casement.”—Emily could not forbear laughing, and Annette looked surprised. Perceiving her extreme aptitude to credit the marvellous, Emily forbore to mention the subject she had intended, lest it should overcome her with idle terrors, and she began to speak on a lively topic—the regattas of Venice.