He left me; and, terrified with a thousand vague forebodings, I sat down
to weep. The nurse, Leonarda, was watching by the cradle of our child in
the inner room.

"I was alone. Suddenly the door opened. I heard thy step; I knew it; I
knew its music. I started up. Saints of Heaven! what a meeting--what a
return! Pale, haggard, thine hands and garments dripping blood, thine
eyes blazing with insane fire, a terrible smile of mockery on thy lip,
thou stoodst before me. I would have thrown myself on thy breast; thou
didst cast me from thee; I fell on my knees, and thy blade was pointed at
my heart--the heart so full of thee! 'He is dead,' didst thou say, in a
hollow voice; 'he is dead--thy paramour--take thy bed beside him!' I
know not what I said, but it seemed to move thee; thy hand trembled, and
the point of thy weapon dropped. It was then that, hearing thy voice,
Leonarda hastened into the room, and bore in her arms thy child. 'See,'
I exclaimed, 'see thy daughter; see, she stretches her hands to thee--she
pleads for her mother!' At that sight thy brow became dark, the demon
seized upon thee again. 'Mine!' were thy cruel words--they ring in my
ear still--'no! she was born before the time--ha! ha!--thou didst betray
me from the first!' With that thou didst raise thy sword; but, even then
(ah, blessed thought! even then) remorse and love palsied thy hand, and
averted thy gaze: the blow was not that of death. I fell senseless to
the ground, and when I recovered thou wert gone. Delirium succeeded; and
when once more my senses and reason returned to me, I found by my side a
holy priest, and from him, gradually, I learned all that till then was
dare. Ferrares had been found in the valley, weltering in his blood.
Borne to a neighbouring monastery, he lingered a few days, to confess the
treachery he had practised on thee; to adopt, in his last hours, the
Christian faith; and to attest his crime with his own signature. He
enjoined the monk, who had converted and confessed him, to place this