returned he became restless and melancholy; he saw no prospect of
arriving at distinction by his talents, or by his sword; peace reigned
throughout the Tuscan states, and the jealousy of the government of all
who bore the mark of Ghibelline extraction, forbade the chance of
successful exertion and honourable reward; his days were spent in moody
abstraction, his nights in feverish dreams; his misfortunes, his
accomplishments and his virtues failed to excite affection in the breast
of his kinsman, who, jealous of the youth and personal attractions of
the man apparently destined to be his heir, grew uneasy at the thought
of benefitting a person he had learned to hate; and suddenly resolving
to cut off at once the presumptuous expectations which the luckless
exile might have cherished, exerted the influence procured by his wealth
to form an alliance with the most peerless beauty which the city
boasted. A new source of anguish added to the misery already sustained
by the wretched Gonzago; his arm was paralyzed by the utter hopelessness
of any attempt to emerge from the obscurity to which fate had condemned
him; he brooded over the dismal futurity which opened before him; and,
as a solace to these gloomy meditations, suffered his imagination to
dwell upon the charms and graces of the lovely Giacinta, his kinsman's
gentle bride. He saw her sometimes flitting through the myrtle groves
which skirted the neighbouring palace; and when night favoured his
concealment, he would approach the marble porticos to catch the sound of
her voice as, accompanied by a lute, she wasted its melody upon the
silent stars. Beatrice, in the mean time, experienced only in the pale
brow and haggard form of her brother an alloy to her happiness.
Alessandro, the young heir of the Orsini family, had abandoned the gay
revels of Florence to share the solitude of the despised Ghibellines;
and although there seemed to be little chance of ultimate triumph over
the obstacles which opposed themselves to an alliance between the
prosperous scion of a noble house and the unportioned orphan of a