ll for the purpose of religious instruction, as to
secure her from all intercourse with her family.

Meantime, the poor uncle took the most energetic measures for her
liberation, and secretly wrote, exhorting her to hold firm, with the
promise of 10,000 dollars for her dowry, if she succeeded in returning
to him. The letter was intercepted, and fell into the hands of the
priests, who did not, however, bring it forward until their plans
were matured. He was kept for some months in suspense, being in total
ignorance of his niece's proceedings, and denied all correspondence
with her; when it was at length intimated to him that she had readily
imbibed the tenets of her religion, was happy at her miraculous
deliverance, and willing to receive a husband at the hands of her
spiritual directors: in furtherance of which desirable end, the sum of
money he had proffered in the event of her restoration to him, was now
claimed as her marriage-portion. Inexpressibly mortified and indignant,
he yet had no alternative but to submit, and the dowry was made over to
the ecclesiastical authorities.

From the day on which she had been borne shrieking from their home,
the merchant and his wife never again set eyes upon their child, never
learned whether old affections yet stirred within her, and never knew
whether she ever became really satisfied with her lot. The youth to
whom she had been united was an obscure _impiegato_ in some little town
of the interior, where, I believe, she still resides. The aunt, quite
heart-broken, quitted the scene of so many agonizing recollections,
and removed to Tuscany, where greater religious liberty was at that
time enjoyed; while the old man divided his time between his wife
and Florence and his business in Ancona, to which he still clung with
characteristic eagerness: but the charm of life was gone, and he moved
about his accustomed haunts a changed and sorrow-stricken man.

With the possibility of a similar fate awaiting their
children;—continually threatened with the revival of certain old laws