The object of his journey was to receive the rents before named, which became due at this period, and also to purchase a wedding-present for his bride.  On this occasion Alessandro Malfi was to have accompanied him; but when Mendez stopped at his door to inquire if he was ready, Malfi came down stairs half-dressed, saying that he had been up all night with his wife, who was ill, and that as she had now fallen asleep, he was going to lie down himself, and try to get a little rest.  This occurred early in the morning; and Mendez rode on, saying that he should call as he came back in the evening, to inquire how his sister was.  Upon this Malfi went to bed, where he remained some hours—­indeed till he received a message from his wife, begging him to go to her.  When he entered the room, the first question she asked was whether Gaspar was gone to Aquila; and on being told that he was, she said she was very sorry for it, for that she had dreamed she saw a man with a mask lying in wait to rob him.

‘I saw the man as distinctly as possible,’ she said, ’but I could not see his face for the mask; and I saw the place, so that I’m sure if I were taken there I should recognise it.’

Her husband told her not to mind her dreams, and that this one was doubtless suggested by the circumstance that had occurred the year before.  ‘But,’ said he, ’Ripa’s safely locked up in jail now, and there’s no danger.’

Nevertheless the dream appears to have made so deep an impression on the sick woman’s fancy, that she never let her husband rest till he promised to go with his own farm-servant to meet her brother—­a compliance which was at length won from him by her saying that she had seen the man crouching behind a low wall that surrounded a half-built church; ‘and close by,’ she added, ’there was a direction-post with something written on it, but I could not read what it was.’

Now it happened that on the horse-road to Aquila, which Faustina herself had never travelled, there was exactly such a spot as that she described.  Malfi knew it well.  Struck by the circumstance, he desired to have his dinner immediately, and then, accompanied by his hind, he set off to meet Gaspar.

In the meanwhile the Spaniard had got his money and made his purchases in good time, not wishing to be late on the road, so that they had scarcely got a mile beyond the church when they met him; and in answer to his inquiries what had brought them there, Malfi related his wife’s dream, adding that he might have spared himself the ride, for he had looked over the wall, and saw nobody there.  ’I told her it was nonsense,’ he said, ’whilst we know your enemy’s under such good keeping at Aquila; but she wouldn’t be satisfied till I came.’