Page:Marquis de Sade - Adelaide of Brunswick.djvu/132

 nobody knew her real name and she had asked these people to keep her identity secret.

Frederick kept working on this clue, and in time he learned that there was a Saxon woman who lived at the Rialto, but her name and place of birth were unknown. He called at the hotels in that neighborhood; but Adelaide had already foreseen any such requests for information, and she had left instructions to say if anybody asked for her to say that she had recently left for Germany.

Frederick did not give up immediately. He thought that if Adelaide were in Venice that he would see her in time by staying on the streets as much as possible. Since it was carnival time, it would be hard to recognize her, but he kept on and in time he was somewhat successful.

Since Adelaide was taller than the other women of Venice, this would always give Frederick a clue and one day he noticed in the middle of Saint Mark's Square a group of admirers surrounding a woman whose beauty was the subject of conversation of all. He pushed his way through the crowd and found the woman talking with the wife of the shipper. Frederick spoke to her in German. Adelaide hesitated for a moment and then answered in Italian assuring him that she only spoke that language. At that moment, Mersburg, who was with the prince, drew near Adelaide and took her by the hand and said to her in Italian:

"Watch out for the man who is speaking to you."

Adelaide knew then that it was her husband and continuing to speak in Italian and changing her voice she said that she could not stand people who spoke to her in a language she couldn't understand. Mersburg translated these words to Frederick who immediately cried out in German:

"It is she, my friend, it is she. I will not leave her until she has been unmasked."

Mersburg who pretended to translate this message into Italian told the princess to escape as quickly as possible, that her husband was furious and that he would almost certainly have her put in irons.

At this moment the wife of the shipper who understood the situation, made a sign to several of the young men who