Chapter 19

"But let us to the roof,
And, when thou hast surveyed the sea, the land,
Visit the narrow cells that cluster there,
As in a place of tombs."
ST. MARK'S PLACE.

We shall not attempt to thread the vaulted galleries, the gloomy
corridors, and all the apartments, through which the keeper's daughter
led her companion. Those who have ever entered an extensive prison, will
require no description to revive the feeling of pain which it excited,
by barred windows, creaking hinges, grating bolts, and all those other
signs, which are alike the means and evidence of incarceration. The
building, unhappily like most other edifices intended to repress the
vices of society, was vast, strong, and intricate within, although, as
has been already intimated, of a chaste and simple beauty externally,
that might seem to have been adopted in mockery of its destination.

Gelsomina entered a low, narrow, and glazed gallery, when she stopped.

"Thou soughtest me, as wont, beneath the water-gate, Carlo," she asked,
"at the usual hour?"

"I should not have entered the prison had I found thee there, for thou
knowest I would be little seen. But I bethought me of thy mother, and
crossed the canal."

"Thou wast wrong. My mother rests much as she has done for many
months--thou must have seen that we are not taking the usual route to
the cell?"

"I have; but as we are not accustomed to meet in thy father's rooms, on
this errand, I thought this the necessary direction."

"Hast thou much knowledge of the palace and the prison, Carlo?"

"More than I could wish, good Gelsomina; but why am I thus questioned,
at a moment when I would be otherwise employed?"

The timid and conscious girl did not answer. Her cheek was never bright,
for, like a flower reared in the shade, it had the delicate hue of her
secluded life; but at this question it became pale. Accustomed to the
ingenuous habits of the sensitive being at his side, the Bravo studied
her speaking features intently. He moved swiftly to a window, and
looking out, his eye fell upon a narrow and gloomy canal. Crossing the
gallery, he cast a glance beneath him, and saw the same dark watery
passage, leading between the masonry of two massive piles to the quay
and the port.

"Gelsomina!" he cried, recoiling from the sight, "this is the Bridge of
Sighs!"

"It is, Carlo; hast thou ever crossed it before?"

"Never: nor do I understand why I cross it now. I have long thought that
it might one day be my fortune to walk this fatal passage, but I could
not dream of such a keeper!"

The eye of Gelsomina brightened, and