In another moment Marietta was at the window, her face deadly
white, her eyes wide with fear.
"They are there!" she cried wildly. "They have come to-night! Hide
yourself quickly! Pasquale will keep them out as long as he can."
She had found Pasquale stoutly refusing to open the door. Outside stood
a lieutenant of the archers with half-a-dozen men, demanding admittance
in the name of the Governor. Pasquale answered that they might get in by
force if they could, but that he had no orders to open the door to them.
The lieutenant was in doubt whether his warrant authorised him to break
in or not.
Zorzi knew that Marietta was in even more danger than he. The situation
was desperate and the time short. She was still at the window, looking
in.
"You know your way to the main furnace rooms," Zorzi said quickly, but
with great coolness. "Run in there, and stand still in the dark till
everything is quiet. Then slip out and get home as quickly as
possible."
"But you? What will become of you?" asked Marietta in an agony of
anxiety.
"If they do not take me at once, they will search all the buildings and
will find you," answered Zorzi. "I will go and meet them, while you are
hiding."
He opened the door beside the window and put his crutch forward upon the
path.
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