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crossing the threshold when it seemed as if a magnetic power forced me to turn about. I saw the Marquis advance towards the sick woman as if to assist her, but there was something so malignant in his look, and Leoni was so deadly pale, that I felt afraid of leaving the dying woman in their hands. I flew back to the sofa, and looking at Leoni with terror in my countenance: 'Beware, beware," said I. "Of what?" replied he, with an air of astonishment. The fact was I knew not of what, and I felt ashamed of the species of folly which I had just displayed. The ironical air of the Marquis completed my embarrassment. I left the room and returned in a few moments with the waiting-women and the physician. The latter functionary pronounced the Princess labouring under a rigidity of the muscles, and declared she must be made to swallow a spoonful of calming potion. They tried to separate her teeth. "Let the Signora try her hand,' "said one of the waiting-women pointing to me, "the Princess will be sure to take it from her." I tried my skill accordingly, and the dying woman yielded gently to my efforts; she pressed my hand feebly, as I withdrew the spoon, she then extended her arms with violence-sprang upright as if she would rush into the middle of the room, and fell back dead upon the couch. A death so sudden affected me terribly, I fainted and was carried insensible from the room. In this state I remained for some days. When I recovered, Leoni informed me that I was now in my own house-that the will had been opened-proved-and unimpeachable in every particular;—that we were in possession of a splendid fortune and a magnificent palace.

"It is to you I owe everything,' ," said Leoni, "and what is more, to you I owe the inestimable pleasure of being able to revert without a pang of shame or remorse to the last hours of our friend. Your sensibility, your angelic sweetness smoothed her sufferings and rendered them tranquil and easy; she died in your arms-a rival whom any woman but yourself would have strangled, and now you weep for her as if she were your sister; you are too good, too good. And now enjoy the fruits of your courage, rejoice in my delight at being rich for your sake, and in being able to surround you with all the comforts which should be yours."

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Silence," said I, "it is now that I blush and feel confounded; while that woman lived, while I sacrificed my pride, my love, I consoled myself with the reflection that I liked her, and that I immolated myself for her and for you. But now I

see nothing but the baseness, the hatefulness of my situation. How the world must despise us!"

'Here you are mistaken," said Leoni, "the world honours and bows to us because we are rich."

But his triumph was short-lived. The heirs at law hurried from Rome, furious against us, and having heard the details of the sudden decease of the Princess, accused us of having hastened it by poison, and insisted on a post-mortem examination. The body was disinterred, and a mere inspection was sufficient to establish the fact that a violent poison had been administered to the deceased. "We are undone," said Leoni, bursting into my room, Zagorola has been poisoned, and we are accused Ask me not who is the author of this abomination, you need not. It was the devil in the shape of Lorenzo. He is safe, and we are in the custody of the police. Have you courage to jump out of that window?"

of it!

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"No," said I. "I am innocent. guilty, fly!"

I fear not-if you are

"I am not guilty, Juliet," said he, grasping my arm in a rage, "don't accuse me when I don't accuse myself. You know I never spare myself."

We were arrested and thrown into prison; an indictment was preferred against us. We stood our trial: the charges were vague and unsubstantiated. My youth and my air of sincerity prejudiced the judges in my behalf, and I was immediately acquitted. The honour and life of Leoni remained for some time longer in suspense. But his address and the want of proof brought him through, and he was finally acquitted and released. Suspicion then fell upon the servants. The Marquis had disappeared, but he returned in disguise as soon as we had been released, and gave Leoni to understand that he was to divide the property with him. He declared we owed everything to him, that but for his promptitude and boldness the will would have been destroyed. He spoke of the murder of Henryet by the hand of Leoni, of which he was an eye-witness, and Leoni was constrained to pay him a very large sum. We then commenced a life of dissipation and boundless extravagance. To ruin himself once more was to Leoni the affair of six months. I saw without regret the rapid disappearance of that wealth which I had acquired with shame and grief; but for his sake I was alarmed at the approach of misery and want, I knew he could not endure them, and that to extricate himself he would rush into new dangers. Unfortunately, it was im

possible to bring him to any sense of economy or forethought. He answered my warnings and entreaties with jokes and caresses. He kept a numerous stud of the finest horses; entertained the whole town, and had a band of musicians always in attendance. But the greatest draw upon him was the immense sums with which he was obliged to purchase the absence of his associates, to prevent them from turning his house into a den of thieves. This intolerable slavery made him sometimes think seriously of flying from the world and retiring with me to some obscure retreat. But to tell the truth, this idea was still less palatable to him, for his passion for me was not strong enough to fill up his existence. He was still attentive, but as at Venice he frequently left me to myself, to run the mad career of pleasure and dissipation. Though sordid in acquiring, he was splendid in his prodigality. His fickle character changed with his fortune, and his affection for me underwent the same changes. In his troubles and reverses, having no one to pity or to love him but myself, he returned to me with delight, but in his prosperity his attention was distracted by a thousand objects.

At this juncture I received a letter from my mother, who had heard of me through Henryet; and who was on the point of coming in search of me, when she was taken dangerously ill. She conjured me to come to her and take care of her, promising to receive me with affection. It was a thousand times more gentle and forgiving than I deserved; my tears fell fast upon it, and yet I found it quaint, too humble, too loving. It seemed to me not so much the pardon of a fond and generous mother as the summons of an invalide and ennuyée. I set out immediately and found her on her death-bed; she gave me her blessing and her pardon, and died in my arms, not forgetting some particular directions as to how she was to be interred.

My many trials and sufferings had so exhausted my sensibility that I had few tears to shed for her. When the body was removed, I shut myself up in my room, and remained brooding over my sorrows for several months; my sole occupation was examining the past in every variety of view, without bestowing a thought on what I was to do for the future. My aunt who had at first received me very coolly, was touched with this mute sorrow, which her character led her to appreciate better than the more expansive one of tears. She tended me in silence, and took precautions to prevent me dying of hunger. The melancholy of that abode which I had seen so brilliant and so gay was suited to my frame of mind. There was the furniMAY, 1840.

EE

ture, which recalled the thousand trifling events of my childhood; I compared that time when a scratch of my finger was the most terrible accident which could agitate my family, to the dark and fearful career which I had since that time gone through. On one side I beheld my mother in the ball-room, on the other, the Princess Zagorola poisoned in my arms, perhaps by my own hand. The music of the band struck my ear in dreams, mixed with the cries of the assassinated Henryet, and in the gloom of the dungeon where for three months I had lived in daily expectation of the sentence of death. I beheld advancing amid the glare of torches and the perfume of flowers a phantom clad in silver crape and covered with jewels. Sometimes, fatigued with these confused and frightful dreams I rose and approached the window, and I looked upon that town where I had been so happy, so flattered; the trees of that promenade where such admiration had followed my every step. But I soon became sensible of the insulting curiosity which was excited by my pale countenance. The passers-by stopped beneath my window, collected into groups, gazed at me, talked of me, and almost pointed at me; then I drew back, pulled down the blinds, and seated myself by my mother's death-bed until my aunt stealing into the apartment, took me by the arm and without uttering a word, conducted me to my meals. Her behaviour at this period struck me as being the most appropriate to my circumstances, that could be pursued. Consolation I could not have heard, reproaches I could not have borne, marks of esteem I would not have believed. Mute affection and delicate attention I was more ready to estimate. That doleful figure which flitted noiselessly around me like a phantom of the past was the only one that could neither annoy or alarm me; at times I took her bony hand and pressed it to my lips, without letting a sigh escape me. She never replied to this caress, but she waited with patience, and never withdrew her hand. This was a great deal. I never thought of Leoni, but as of some terrific shape, which I used my utmost endeavours to chase away. To return to him was a thought at which I shuddered as I would have done at the sight of the scaffold. One day, however, I received a letter from him, conveying tidings of new calamities. A will of the Princess Zagorola, bearing a date more recent than that under which we claimed, had been discovered. One of her confidential servants had been the despository of it from the time of her death until then. She made it at the period when Leoni had withdrawn from her to take care of me, and when she had doubts about

A

man,

his being my brother. After her reception of us, and her reconciliation with Leoni, she had intended to cancel it; but as she was subject to a thousand caprices, she had kept the two wills within her reach, to be always ready for emergencies, and to allow whichever she pleased to stand alone. Leoni was aware of the drawer which held the one referring to himself; but the other was in the keeping of Vicenzo, a confidential who was to burn it or preserve it as she should direct. The hapless woman had not counted upon being hurried away so suddenly. Vicenzo, who had been overwhelmed with favours by Leoni, and who was entirely devoted to him at this period, had quietly concealed the will and allowed Leoni's to stand. He might have enriched himself, by either selling his secret to us, or the heirs at law; but he was neither a dishonest nor a bad man. He allowed Leoni to enjoy the property without exacting any advantages beyond those he already possessed. But when I was gone, he became discontented; for Leoni was harsh with his servants, and it required all my gentleness to keep them with him.

One day Leoni forgot himself so far as to strike this old man; he instantly drew the will from his pocket, and told him he would take it at once to the cousins of the princess. Menaces, prayers, offers of money-all were in vain : his resentment was not to be appeased. The Marquis coming in at the moment, resolved upon employing his force to get possession of the fatal document; but Vicenzo, though old, was remarkably muscular and strong, he brought his adversary to the ground; and, disengaging himself from his grasp, he fled and accomplished his revenge. Leoni was instantly put out of possession, and sentenced to replace the property he had already squandered, which amounted to three-fourths. As this was impossible, he tried to escape by flight. He was taken and flung into prison, and it was from that dreary abode his letter was dated. It did not contain all the details I have just mentioned; it merely stated that he was in a frightful predicament; and that if I did not go to his assistance, he would die in a damp dungeon, as he was abandoned by all the world and deprived even of his clothes.

On learning this new misfortune of Leoni, I felt my solicitude for his welfare return as fresh as ever. I thought no more of the project I had formed of founding a convent with the proceeds of my inheritance, and of shutting myself up for the remainder of my life. I transferred my entire property to Milan, reserving only a capital sufficient to double