'Then there is the greater necessity for us to be silent,' said Emily:
'pr'ythee say no more, till we reach your chamber.' Here, at length,
they arrived, without interruption, and, Annette having fastened the
door, Emily sat down on her little bed, to recover breath and composure.
To her enquiry, whether Valancourt was among the prisoners in the
castle, Annette replied, that she had not been able to hear, but that
she knew there were several persons confined. She then proceeded, in her
tedious way, to give an account of the siege, or rather a detail of her
terrors and various sufferings, during the attack. 'But,' added she,
'when I heard the shouts of victory from the ramparts, I thought we were
all taken, and gave myself up for lost, instead of which, WE had driven
the enemy away.
I went then to the north gallery, and saw a great many
of them scampering away among the mountains; but the rampart walls were
all in ruins, as one may say, and there was a dismal sight to see down
among the woods below, where the poor fellows were lying in heaps, but
were carried off presently by their comrades. While the siege was going
on, the Signor was here, and there, and every where, at the same time,
as Ludovico told me, for he would not let me see any thing hardly, and
locked me up, as he has often done before, in a room in the middle of
the castle, and used to bring me food, and come and talk with me as
often as he could; and I must say, if it had not been for Ludovico, I
should have died outright.'
'Well, Annette,' said Emily, 'and how have affairs gone on, since the
siege?' 'O! sad hurly burly doings, ma'amselle,' replied Annette; 'the Signors
have done nothing but sit and drink and game, ever since. They sit up,
all night, and play among themselves, for all those riches and fine
things, they brought in, some time since, when they used to go out
a-robbing, or as good, for days together; and then they have dreadful
quarrels about who loses, and who wins. That fierce Signor Verezzi is
always losing, as they tell me, and Signor Orsino wins from him, and
this makes him very wroth, and they have had several hard set-to's about
it. Then, all those fine ladies are at the castle still; and I declare I
am frighted, whenever I meet any of them in the passages.'-
'Surely, Annette,' said Emily starting, 'I heard a noise: listen.' After
a long pause, 'No, ma'amselle,' said Annette, 'it was only the wind in
the gallery; I often hear it, when it shakes the old doors, at the other
end. But won't you go to bed, ma'amselle? you surely will not sit up
starving, all night.'