"'Had you expected me, Madam,' said he, 'your appearance could scarcely
have been more fitted to the occasion. Few ladies of your youth and beauty
array themselves to venerate a saint as they would to welcome a lover.'

"'Sir,' she answered, 'having never enjoyed the latter opportunity, I am
constrained to make the most of the former.--What's that?' she cried,
falling back, and the rosary dropped from her hand.

"There was a loud noise at the other end of the saloon, as of a heavy
object being dragged down the passage; and presently a dozen men were seen
haling across the threshold the shrouded thing from the oxcart. The Duke
waved his hand toward it. 'That,' said he, 'Madam, is a tribute to your
extraordinary piety. I have heard with peculiar satisfaction of your
devotion to the blessed relics in this chapel, and to commemorate a zeal
which neither the rigors of winter nor the sultriness of summer could abate
I have ordered a sculptured image of you, marvellously executed by the
Cavaliere Bernini, to be placed before the altar over the entrance to the
crypt.'

"The Duchess, who had grown pale, nevertheless smiled playfully at this.
'As to commemorating my piety," she said, 'I recognize there one of your
excellency's pleasantries--'

"'A pleasantry?' the Duke interrupted; and he made a sign to the men, who
had now reached the threshold of the chapel. In an instant the wrappings
fell from the figure, and there knelt the Duchess to the life. A cry of
wonder rose from all, but the Duchess herself stood whiter than the marble.

"'You will see,' says the Duke, 'this is no pleasantry, but a triumph
of the incomparable Bernini's chisel. The likeness was done from your