My dear don Francis,—­I have just learned, with concern, that you are in prison upon two charges—­one false, and another which is trumpery.  I hasten to assure you that orders have been given which will satisfy your sense of justice, and, I hope, improve your opinion of myself.  I believe that by this time you will have been assured that it was not I who betrayed your confidences to Semifonte—­who, between you and me, has got his deserts, or (according to the orthodox) must now be getting them.  As for my more recent offence—­the real ground of our little encounter—­I can assure you of this, that if I ever make any such assertion again, and you again call me a liar, I shall not resent it; for a liar I shall be.  I kiss your hands and am, with the most perfect esteem,

“My dear Don Francis,

“Your most obedient, faithful, humble servant,

“Count Amadeo Giraldi.

“P.  S.—­It may be discreet in you to repair to Lucca for the summer heats.  Pray command me in any occasion you may have.”

My doors were set open.  The first use I made of my freedom was to escort Donna Aurelia to her chair.  Without a word spoken between us, I handed her in and shut to the door.  The chairman asked me for a direction.

“To the house of Dr. Lanfranchi the learned judge,” I said.

CHAPTER XLVII

THE FINAL PROOF

Free in every sense of the term—­free, of prison, free of debt (for if Aurelia had paid me, I had now paid her husband), free of every obligation but guilt, I was all on fire for Lucca and that service which is perfect freedom, voluntary bondage to Virginia, whom I could now love whole-heartedly as she deserved.  Artemis!  Artemis!  Chaster than a fire—­ what wonder is it that she had prevailed in that dream-strife which I had witnessed in the villa garden, what wonder when she had to contend with the soiled wife of a vile man—­with Aurelia, the lovely, caressing, silken woman, bought by a place, bought by a house, who, possessed by two men, sought yet another.  Ah, thou glowing, honey-tongued, unhappy one, in what a horrible web of affairs was I enmeshed along with thee!  What a world was that into which I went ruffling with my money, and rank and fine prospects!  Never more, never more would I enter that world of bargain and sale.

So I swore, and so purposed; but in pursuance of a plan which I had formed in my most private mind, I travelled to Lucca in a coach and four horses, with postillions before and my body-servant behind.  On this occasion I was furnished with a passport and abundance of money.  All my property in Florence, all my household gear had been transferred to the city of my choice.  I left behind me in Florence not one vestige of myself, and (so far as I know) not one true friend.  I intended to be two days upon the road, and lay the night at Empoli; early on the following morning, a fine day in early autumn, I departed from the inn for my final stage, and fared without incident as far as Ponte a Cappiano.