"You know."
"I swear then to cast myself deliberately into a terrible disaster, and to condemn myself to live far from all that I love in the world."
"Make a definite promise."
"I swear to obey the Duchessa and to make my escape on the day she wishes and as she wishes. And what is to become of me once I am parted from you?"
"Swear to escape, whatever may happen to you."
"What! Have you made up your mind to marry the Marchese Crescenzi as soon as I am no longer here?"
"Oh, heavens! What sort of heart do you think I have? . . . But swear, or I shall not have another moment's peace."
"Very well, I swear to escape from here on the day on which Signora Sanseverina shall order me to do so, and whatever may happen to me between now and then."
This oath obtained, Clelia became so faint that she was obliged to retire after thanking Fabrizio.
"Everything was in readiness for my flight to-morrow morning," she told him, "had you persisted in refusing. I should have beheld you at this moment for the last time in my life, I had vowed that to the Madonna. Now, as soon as I can leave my room, I shall go and examine the terrible wall beneath the new stone in the parapet."