VENDETTA

A STORY OF ONE FORGOTTEN

By MARIE CORELLI

Author of "ARDATH," "THELMA," "A ROMANCE OF TWO WORLDS," "WORMWOOD,"
etc., etc.






PREFACE

Lest those who read the following pages should deem this story at
all improbable, it is perhaps necessary to say that its chief
incidents are founded on an actual occurrence which took place in
Naples during the last scathing visitation of the cholera in 1884.
We know well enough, by the chronicle of daily journalism, that the
infidelity of wives is, most unhappily, becoming common--far too
common for the peace and good repute of society. Not so common is an
outraged husband's vengeance--not often dare he take the law into
his own hands--for in England, at least, such boldness on his part
would doubtless be deemed a worse crime than that by which he
personally is doomed to suffer. But in Italy things are on a
different footing--the verbosity and red-tape of the law, and the
hesitating verdict of special juries, are not there considered
sufficiently efficacious to sooths a man's damaged honor and ruined