that the disorder having attacked his brain, a tranquillity of mind was absolutely necessary for his recovery.
Zastrozzi, to whom the life, though not the happiness of Verezzi was requisite, saw that his too eager desire for revenge had carried him beyond his point. He saw that some deception was requisite; he accordingly instructed the old woman to inform him, when he recovered, that he was placed in this situation because the physician had asserted that the air of this country was necessary for a recovery from a brain fever which attacked him.
It was long before Verezzi recovered—long did he languish in torpid insensibility, during which his soul seemed to have winged its way to happier regions.
At last, however, he recovered, and the first use he made of his senses was to inquire where he was.
The old woman told him the story which she had been instructed in by Zastrozzi.
"Who ordered me to be chained in that desolate and dark cavern?" inquired Verezzi, "where I have been for many years, and suffered most insupportable torments?"
"Lord bless me!" said the old woman; "why, baron, how strangely you talk! I begin to fear you will again lose your senses, at the very time you ought to be thanking God for suffering them to return to you. What can you mean by being chained in a cavern? I declare I am frightened at the very thought; pray do compose yourself."
Verezzi was much perplexed by the old woman's assertions. That Julia should send him to a mean cottage, and desert him, was impossible.
The old woman's relation seemed so well connected, and told with such an air of characteristic simplicity, that he could not disbelieve her.
But to doubt the evidence of his own senses, and the
