Gouache had acquired enough knowledge of Roman life to understand this, and nothing short of physical exhaustion would have prevented his spending his leisure in considering the means of overcoming such stupendous difficulties.  When he awoke his situation presented itself clearly enough to his mind, however, and occupied his thoughts throughout the remainder of the day.  Owing to the insurrection his departure was delayed for twenty-four hours, and his duty was likely to keep him busily engaged during the short time that remained to him.  The city was in a state of siege and there would be a perpetual service of patrols, sentries and general maintenance of order.  The performance of labours almost mechanical left him plenty of time for reflection, though he found it hard to spare a moment in which to see any of his friends.

He was very anxious to meet the Princess Sant’ Ilario, whose conduct on the previous night had seriously alarmed him.  It was to her that he looked for assistance in his troubles and the consciousness that she was angry with him was a chief source of distress.  In the course of the few words he had exchanged with her, she had made it sufficiently clear to him that although she disapproved in principle of his attachment to Faustina, she would do nothing to hinder his marriage if he should be able to overcome the obstinacy of the girl’s parents.  He was at first at a loss to explain her severity to him when she had left her house to take Faustina home.  Being wholly innocent of any share in the latter’s mad course, it did not at first enter his mind that Corona could attribute to him any blame in the matter.  On the contrary, he knew that if the girl’s visit to the ruined barracks remained a secret, this would be owing quite as much to his own discretion and presence of mind as to the princess’s willingness to help him.  Not a little, too, was due to good luck, since the least difference in the course of events must have led to immediate discovery.

A little thought led him to a conclusion which wounded his pride while it explained Corona’s behaviour.  It was evident that she had believed in a clandestine meeting, prearranged between the lovers at the instigation of Gouache himself, and she had probably supposed this meeting to be only the preliminary to a runaway match.  How, indeed, could Faustina have expected to escape observation, even had there been no revolution in Rome, that night?  Corona clearly thought that the girl had never intended to come back, that Gouache had devised means for their departure, and that Faustina had believed the elopement possible in the face of the insurrection.  Anastase, on finding himself in the small hours of the morning with Faustina on his hands and knowing that discovery must follow soon after day-break, had boldly brought her to the Palazzo Saracinesca and had demanded Corona’s assistance.