this Ferdinand; but then this again is connected with the history of
Bianca Capello, so that he must commence with her adventures. The name
of Bianca Capello figures just now on the title-page of one of Messrs
Colburn's and Bentley's _last and newest_. Those who have read the
novel, and those who, like ourselves, have seen only the title, may be
equally willing to hear the story of this high-spirited dame told in the
terse, rapid manner--brief, but full of detail--of Dumas. We cannot give
the whole of it in the words of M. Dumas; the extract would be too long;
we must get over a portion of the ground in the shortest manner
possible.

"It was towards the end of the reign of Cosmo the Great, about
the commencement of the year 1563, that a young man named
Pietro Bonaventuri, the issue of a family respectable, though
poor, left Florence to seek his fortune in Venice. An uncle who
bore the same name as himself, and who had lived in the latter
city for twenty years, recommended him to the bank of the
Salviati, of which he himself was one of the managers. The
youth was received in the capacity of clerk.

"Opposite the bank of the Salviati lived a rich Venetian
nobleman, head of the house of the Capelli. He had one son and
one daughter, but not by his wife then living, who, in
consequence, was stepmother to his children. With the son, our
narrative is not concerned; the daughter, Bianca Capello, was a
charming girl of the age of fifteen or sixteen, of a pale
complexion, on which the blood, at every emotion, would appear,
and pass like a roseate cloud; her hair, of that rich flaxen
which Raphael has made so beautiful; her eyes dark and full of
lustre, her figure slight and flexile, but of that flexibility