can bear the tale? who can say, the child of your bosom, the darling of your love, the sole relic of your lost Contessa, is removed from this world? who can say the Lady Adelheida is no more, and her last sigh spent itself in your absence?"

66

Spare me," me," murmured the dying Adelheida; "the conflict is past recal not the sad scene of separation. Heavent knows," and tears streamed down her cheeks, "Heaven knows, the recollection will linger, until the last slender ligament of mortality is broken."

Father Brazilio, too," pursued Vannina; his prayers will sooth the approach of death; his prayers, Lady, will lighten its torture."

"No, no," with momentary strength, "it has no torture;" and again the heartoppressive sickness succeeded. " Hold

me, sustain me," struggling;

"the pa

unhappy, messenger of peace, Death, Death, draw near, and ease me! They say," wildly, "blood will have blood; they say, the avenging hand of Heaven will mark" She paused, she trembled; recollection seemed to return; she fixed her eyes on Huberto, and strong and terrifying convulsions seized her. When again able to articulate, "Let me be buried deep," she continued; "let me be hid from the face of day; let no soul gaze on my altered form; and the pale glimmer of midnight must alone witness the solemn rites of interment; it suits the deed."

"It suits the murder," interrupted Vannina; and again stifled her sobs in her hands.

Adelheida started; a heavy cloud chased away the serenity of resignation; she' turned a reproachful look towards the speaker, and concluded-It suits my too, too apparent situation. I am a wife, yet the world knows it not; I soon should have been a mother, yet the world suspects it not.

not. The The virgin fame, Vannina, shrinks from the blast of calumny; like the glossy surface of a mirror, reflecting the purity of its object, breathe but on it, and its brightness becomes obscured. Leave me, my too feeling girl; go to the oratory, think of my struggling spirit, and join in the prayers of Father Brazilio."

She feebly extended her hand; Vannina snatched it; kissed it; gazed on it as the last sad pledge of friendship; and, with lingering reluctance, withdrew from the apartment.

No sooner was the door closed, no sooner was the deep stillness of night restored, than Adelheida, struggling with her feelings, endeavoured to impress with fortitude the dejected heart of Di Rinaldini. She pointed out the inefficacy of sorrow; spoke of the stillness of the grave as of the rest of nature, the cradle of repose; casually glanced over the fleeting

VOL. I.

C

fleeting joys of life; rose, with pious zeal, superior to their thraldom; and, when she traced restored calmness, whispered, in a voice of heavenly melody, "One, one duty, and all is fulfilled."

CHAP.

CHAP. II.

Aghast he stood,

While from her eyes the stream of sorrow flow'd;
She paus'd, she trembled, breath'd the tale, and died.

M. $.

HUBERTO, in silent dread, awaited the explanation blasted in the moment when the cup of his felicity was full, when fate, in the possession of his Adelheida, had left him nothing to sigh for, he felt the fearful void which the heart experiences, when the last attenuated line of hope is severed; he felt as one whom Misfortune had pointed out as her own, on whom Calamity had impressed the iron rod of her power. Early the sport of destiny, c 2

the