and succeeded in calming the irritation of their wounded pride.

But he could not calm the raging tumult of his own heart--he had entered
into preliminary engagements for a marriage with the daughter of a house
as haughty as his own. His mother's fame would suffer, not that he cared
one jot for any abstract idea of virtue, and she had been sinless in
that at least, for she knew not that her husband had another wife. He
had been offered by the king, and had accepted a high confidential
mission to a foreign power, and now when every proud wish of his heart
seemed to be gratified, to be threatened with the loss of all--and more,
to be subjected to the vulgar gaze as a murderer--death he felt were
better. He drank deeply, which was not his usual custom, and to conceal
his feelings affected a wild gaiety, which, however, failed in deceiving
his companions. Midnight had long passed when he retired to his chamber,
harassed and jaded by the efforts he had made to preserve appearances,
and still more irritated by the wine he had drank. A vague feeling of
horror moreover began to steal over him. He looked out upon the
moonlight and drew his head in with a shudder, for he fancied--it was
but fancy, that he saw a body lying upon the ground. He tried to nerve
himself to the task of destroying the documents, but could not bring
himself to touch the casket. At length he opened the casket; a deep
groan seemed to issue from it. The long low musical laugh he had heard
before sounded in the room. The next moment he hardened himself and
began to read them over. They consisted of the letters mentioned before,
his father's marriage certificate, and the addition of a still more
important document--a statement drawn up by his father a little before
his death, in which he acknowledged Captain Piercy, the name his son had
been known by, prayed for forgiveness for the wrong he had done his
mother, and fully acknowledged his marriage with the fair Italian. This
was the document which had led the countess to persecute Captain