love, and he is surprised when he develops romantic feelings towards Gina; the omniscient narrator tells us that she shares the same feelings although the characters never discuss them. Fabrice becomes involved with a young actress whose manager/lover takes offense and tries to kill Fabrice. In the resulting fight, Fabrice kills the man and flees Parma for Bologna, fearing correctly that he will not be treated justly by the courts. After returning to Parma surreptitiously, Fabrice returns to Bologna, spending much time trying to form a relationship with an attractive soprano, Fausta; in the meantime, the judiciary have found him guilty of the murder. Distressed by these developments indicating that Fabrice may be executed, Gina goes to the Prince to plead for Fabrice's life stating she will leave Parma if he is not. While the Prince is alienated by Gina's dignity and independence, he fears that his court will become boring without her and that she will speak poorly about his dominion when she departs. He communicates his willingness to free Fabrice and yields to Gina's demand that he sign a note to release him. But the Count, in an effort to be diplomatic, omits the crucial phrase: "this unjust procedure will have no further effect." The following morning, the Prince connives to have Fabrice imprisoned for twelve years by signing an order affixed with a date preceding the note purporting to release him. For the next nine months, Gina schemes to have Fabrice freed and manages to get secret messages relayed to him in the tower, in part by means of an improvised semaphore line. The Prince keeps spreading rumors that Fabrice is going to be executed as a way to put pressure on Gina. Meanwhile, Fabrice is oblivious to his danger and is living happily because he has fallen in love with the commandant's daughter, Clélia Conti, whom Fabrice can see from his prison window as she tends her caged birds. They fall in love, and after some time he persuades her to communicate with him by means of letters of the alphabet printed on sheets ripped from a book. The happy Fabrice resists Gina's plans to escape. But Gina finally persuades him and has Clélia smuggle three long ropes to him. The only thing that concerns Fabrice is whether he will be able to meet Clélia after he escapes. But Clélia – who has feelings of guilt