It was very short, as follows:-- "It may interest you to know that the Duchessa d'Astrardente is going to her castle in the Sabines on the day after to-morrow." This laconic epistle Del Ferice carefully directed to Don Giovanni Saracinesca at his palace, and fastened a stamp upon it; but he concealed the address from Temistocle.

The second letter was longer, and written in his own small and ornate handwriting.

It was to Donna Tullia Mayer.
It ran thus:-- "You would forgive my importuning you with a letter, most charming Donna Tullia, if you could conceive of my desolation and loneliness.

For more than three weeks I have been entirely deprived of the pleasure, the exquisite delight, of conversing with her for whom I have suffered.

I still suffer so much.