I bade her brace herself and have courage for the tale I was to tell.

I assured her that the horror of it was all passed and that she had naught to fear.

So soon as her natural curiosity should be satisfied it should be hers to return to her brother at the Palace.
"But how came I thence ?" she cried.

"I must have lain in a swoon, for I remember nothing." And then her swift mind, leaping to a reasonable conclusion; and assisted, perhaps, by the memory of the shattered catafalque which she had seen--"Did they account me dead, Lazzaro ?" she asked of a sudden, her eyes dilating with a curious affright as they were turned upon my own.
"Yes, Madonna," answered I, "you were accounted dead." And, with that, I told her the entire story of what had befallen, saving only that I left my own part unmentioned, nor sought to explain my opportune presence in the church.

When I spoke of the coming of Ramiro and his knaves she shuddered and closed her eyes in very awe.