A Sicilian Romance

'Nor shall she now,' said the marquis. 'What--when wealth, honor, and

distinction, are laid at my feet, shall they be refused, because a

foolish girl--a very baby, who knows not good from evil, cries, and

says she cannot love! Let me not think of it--My just anger may,

perhaps, out-run discretion, and tempt me to chastise your

folly.--Attend to what I say--accept the duke, or quit this castle for

ever, and wander where you will.' Saying this, he burst away, and

Julia, who had hung weeping upon his knees, fell prostrate upon the

floor. The violence of the fall completed the effect of her distress,

and she fainted. In this state she remained a considerable time. When

she recovered her senses, the recollection of her calamity burst upon

her mind with a force that almost again overwhelmed her. She at length

raised herself from the ground, and moved towards her own apartment,

but had scarcely reached the great gallery, when Hippolitus entered

it. Her trembling limbs would no longer support her; she caught at a

bannister to save herself; and Hippolitus, with all his speed, was

scarcely in time to prevent her falling. The pale distress exhibited

in her countenance terrified him, and he anxiously enquired concerning

it. She could answer him only with her tears, which she found it

impossible to suppress; and gently disengaging herself, tottered to

her closet. Hippolitus followed her to the door, but desisted from

further importunity. He pressed her hand to his lips in tender

silence, and withdrew, surprized and alarmed.

Julia, resigning herself to despair, indulged in solitude the excess

of her grief. A calamity, so dreadful as the present, had never before

presented itself to her imagination. The union proposed would have

been hateful to her, even if she had no prior attachment; what then

must have been her distress, when she had given her heart to him who

deserved all her admiration, and returned all her affection.

The Duke de Luovo was of a character very similar to that of the

marquis. The love of power was his ruling passion;--with him no gentle

or generous sentiment meliorated the harshness of authority, or

directed it to acts of beneficence. He delighted in simple undisguised

tyranny. He had been twice married, and the unfortunate women

subjected to his power, had fallen victims to the slow but corroding

hand of sorrow. He had one son, who some years before had escaped the

tyranny of his father, and had not been since heard of. At the late

festival the duke had seen Julia; and her beauty made so strong an

impression upon him, that he had been induced now to solicit her hand.

The marquis, delighted with the prospect of a connection so flattering

to his favorite passion, readily granted his consent, and immediately

sealed it with a promise.