gash. I tore out the silver image, and hacked it into innumerable
pieces. As I scattered the last fragments about, the moon was suddenly
veiled; a great wind arose, howling down the square; it seemed to me
that the earth shook. I threw down the hatchet and the saw, and fled
home. I felt pursued, as if by the tramp of hundreds of invisible
horsemen.

Now I am calm. It is midnight; another moment and she will be here!
Patience, my heart! I hear it beating loud. I trust that no one will
accuse poor Sor Asdrubale. I will write a letter to the authorities to
declare his innocence should anything happen.... One! the clock in the
palace tower has just struck.... "I hereby certify that, should
anything happen this night to me, Spiridion Trepka, no one but myself
is to be held..." A step on the staircase! It is she! it is she! At
last, Medea, Medea! Ah! AMOUR DURE--DURE AMOUR!

* * * * *

_NOTE.--Here ends the diary of the late Spiridion Trepka The chief
newspapers of the province of Umbria informed the public that, on
Christmas morning of the year 1885, the bronze equestrian statue of
Robert II. had been found grievously mutilated; and that Professor
Spiridion Trepka of Posen, in the German Empire, had been discovered
dead of a stab in the region of the heart, given by an unknown
hand._

Dionea

From the Letters of Doctor Alessandro De Rosis to the Lady Evelyn
Savelli, Princess of Sabina.