He began to walk towards the small room where he slept, and where he kept his few possessions.  He had taken two steps from the table, when he stopped short, turned round and listened.

He heard the sound of light footsteps, running along the path and coming nearer.  In another moment Marietta was at the window, her face deadly white, her eyes wide with fear.

“They are there!” she cried wildly.  “They have come to-night!  Hide yourself quickly!  Pasquale will keep them out as long as he can.”

She had found Pasquale stoutly refusing to open the door.  Outside stood a lieutenant of the archers with half-a-dozen men, demanding admittance in the name of the Governor.  Pasquale answered that they might get in by force if they could, but that he had no orders to open the door to them.  The lieutenant was in doubt whether his warrant authorised him to break in or not.

Zorzi knew that Marietta was in even more danger than he.  The situation was desperate and the time short.  She was still at the window, looking in.

“You know your way to the main furnace rooms,” Zorzi said quickly, but with great coolness.  “Run in there, and stand still in the dark till everything is quiet.  Then slip out and get home as quickly as possible.”

“But you?  What will become of you?” asked Marietta in an agony of anxiety.

“If they do not take me at once, they will search all the buildings and will find you,” answered Zorzi.  “I will go and meet them, while you are hiding.”

He opened the door beside the window and put his crutch forward upon the path.  At the same moment the sound of a tremendous blow echoed down the dark corridor.  The moon was low but had not set and there was still light in the garden.

“Quickly!” Zorzi exclaimed.  “They are breaking down the door.”

But Marietta clung to him almost savagely, when he tried to push her in the direction of the main furnace rooms on the other side of the garden.

“I will not leave you,” she cried.  “They shall take me with you, wherever you are going!”

She grasped his hand with both her hands, and then, as he moved, she slipped her arm round him.  At the street door the pounding blows succeeded each other in quick succession, but apparently without effect.

Zorzi saw that he must make her understand her extreme danger.  He took hold of her wrist with a quiet strength that recalled her to herself, and there was a tone of command in his voice when he spoke.

“Go at once,” he said.  “It will be worse for both of us if you are found here.  They will hang me for stealing the master’s daughter as well as his secrets.  Go, dear love, go!  Good-bye!”

He kissed her once, and then gently pushed her from him.  She understood that she must obey, and that if he spoke of his own danger it was for the sake of her good name.  With a gesture of despair she turned and left him, crossed the patch of light without looking back, and disappeared into the shadows beyond.  She was safe now, for he would go and meet the archers, opening the door to give himself up.  Using his crutch he swung himself along into the dark corridor without another moment’s hesitation.