Page:Marquis de Sade - Adelaide of Brunswick.djvu/110

 "Will you tell him, at least, the keen regrets that I have at not being able to serve him better?"

"I give you my word of honor. The feeling of gratitude will be understood by the one who has just shown you what control he has over his heart. You have a debt to pay Dourlach and I will take over this debt with pleasure. I am sorry not to be able to do more for such a beautiful princess. Especially for one whose father I shall cherish to the last moments of my life."

Krimpser's first lieutenant appeared. Adelaide was put in his hands and the severest orders were given him. This officer got into the carriage with the princess and Bathilda and escorted by several men, they started off for the Venetian frontier. They were to go as far as Padua.

When they had reached their destination, Krimpser's officer asked the two women if they wanted to be escorted still farther. They declined and to show their gratitude for having been brought safely to Padua, they paid all the men generously.

After such a long captivity, Adelaide and Bathilda were very happy to be free once more. They were quite interested in the new town, and at once began to explore its many fascinating streets. Padua, built by Antenor almost four hundred years before Rome, was beginning to be famous as a center of learning and culture. The town was situated in the center of a broad fertile plain, encircled by two rivers. To the weary traveler, it presented a picture of delicious tranquility. The two women thought they would be able, without danger, to spend several days at Padua. They enjoyed a complete rest for a week, and at the end of this time they went by boat through the splendid canal of Brenta to Venice.

Although this city, which was then only three hundred years old, was far from being the splendid city it was to become, it was even then very picturesque. Venice, as one approached it by boat, resembled less a city than a flotilla in the midst of the sea. Towards the middle of the seventh century, a few families from Padua, fleeing the fury of the Goths who were ravaging Italy, sought refuge in the marshy places in this Adriatic gulf; this was the beginning of Venice. As those who established the colony came from Padua, the Paduans thought