Giacomo Piaveni was a noble Italian of the young blood, son of a General
loved by Eugene. In him the loss of Italy was deplorable. He perished
by treachery at the age of twenty-three years. So splendid was this
youth in appearance, of so sweet a manner with women, and altogether so-
gentle and gallant, that it was a widowhood for women to have known him:
and at his death the hearts of two women who had loved him in rivalry
became bound by a sacred tie of friendship. He, though not of
distinguished birth, had the choice of an almost royal alliance in the
first blush of his manhood. He refused his chance, pleading in excuse to
Count Serabiglione, that he was in love with that nobleman's daughter,
Laura; which it flattered the count to hear, but he had ever after a
contempt for the young man's discretion, and was observed to shrug, with
the smooth sorrowfulness of one who has been a prophet, on the day when
Giacomo was shot. The larger estates of the Piaveni family, then in
Giacomo's hands, were in a famous cheese-making district, producing a
delicious cheese:--'white as lambkins!' the count would ejaculate most
dolefully; and in a rapture of admiration, 'You would say, a marble
quarry when you cut into it.' The theme was afflicting, for all the
estates of Giacomo were for the time forfeit, and the pleasant agitation
produced among his senses by the mention of the cheese reminded him at
the same instant that he had to support a widow with two children. The
Signora Piaveni lived in Milan, and the count her father visited her
twice during the summer months, and wrote to her from his fitful Winter
residences in various capital cities, to report progress in the settled
scheme for the recovery of Giacomo's property, as well for his widow as
for the heirs of his body. 'It is a duty,' Count Serabiglione said
emphatically. 'My daughter can entertain no proposal until her children
are duly established; or would she, who is young and lovely and archly
capricious, continue to decline the very best offers of the Milanese