"Zanoni, it is day!" No answer but the low wail of her child.

Merciful Heaven! was it then all a dream?
She tossed back the long tresses that must veil her sight; she felt the amulet on her bosom,--it was NO dream! "O God! and he is gone!" She sprang to the door,--she shrieked aloud.

The jailer comes.

"My husband, my child's father ?" "He is gone before thee, woman!" "Whither?
Speak--speak!" "To the guillotine!"-- and the black door closed again.
It closed upon the senseless! As a lightning-flash, Zanoni's words, his sadness, the true meaning of his mystic gift, the very sacrifice he made for her, all became distinct for a moment to her mind,--and then darkness swept on it like a storm, yet darkness which had its light.

And while she sat there, mute, rigid, voiceless, as congealed to stone, A VISION, like a wind, glided over the deeps within,--the grim court, the judge, the jury, the accuser; and amidst the victims the one dauntless and radiant form.
"Thou knowest the danger to the State,--confess!" "I know; and I keep my promise.