Don Juan then restored the infant to the housekeeper, bidding her take
the best care she could of it until daybreak, commanding that the rich
clothes it had first worn should be put on it again, and directing her
not to take it from the house until he had seen it once more. That done,
he returned to the room; and the two friends being again alone with the
beautiful lady, she said, "If you desire that I should relate my story,
you must first give me something that may restore my strength, for I
feel in much need of it." Don Antonio flew to the beaufet for some
conserves, of which the lady ate a little; and having drunk a glass of
water, and feeling somewhat refreshed, she said, "Sit down, Signors, and
listen to my story."

The gentlemen seated themselves accordingly, and she, arranging herself
on the bed, and covering her person with the folds of her mantle,
suffered the veil which she had kept about her head to fall on her
shoulders, thus giving her face to view, and exhibiting in it a lustre
equal to that of the moon, rather of the sun itself, when displayed in
all its splendour. Liquid pearls fell from her eyes, which she
endeavoured to dry with a kerchief of extraordinary delicacy, and with
hands so white that he must have had much judgment in colour who could
have found a difference between them and the cambric. Finally, after
many a sigh and many an effort to calm herself, with a feeble and
trembling voice, she said--

"I, Signors, am she of whom you have doubtless heard mention in this
city, since, such as it is, there are few tongues that do not publish
the fame of my beauty. I am Cornelia Bentivoglio, sister of Lorenzo
Bentivoglio; and, in saying this, I have perhaps affirmed two
acknowledged truths,--the one my nobility, and the other my beauty. At a
very early age I was left an orphan to the care of my brother, who was