Deserted by her dispirited grooms, her enemies hot upon her heels, she was in no case to trifle with assistance, or to despise an offer of services, however frail it might seem.

With both hands she clutched at the slender hope I brought her in the hour of her despair.
"Sir," she cried, "if indeed it lies in your power to help me, you could not find it in your heart to be sparing of that power did you but know the details of my sorry circumstance." "That power, Madonna, it may be that I have," said I, and at those words of mine her servants seemed to honour me with a greater interest.

They leaned forward on their horses and eyed me with eyes grown of a sudden hopeful.

"And," I continued, "if you will have utter faith in me, I see a way to render doubly certain your escape." She looked up into my face, and what she saw there may have reassured her that I promised no more than I could accomplish.

For the rest she had to choose between trusting me and suffering capture.
"Sir," said she, "I do not know you, nor why you should interest yourself in the concerns of a desolated woman.