The Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, S.C.) 1836-1851, 1850-02-15
4 5rle fte1 Gale.
A VENETIAN STORY.
CONCLUDED.

its single pair; and Nina was happy too, though
she more submitted to his alteration than enjoy.
| ed it for her own satisfaction. There were
moments when Traford doubted her love- and
at such times; lie would leave her to wander
about alone in the morbid abstracts which she
could never comprehend, and very much dread
ed at every fresh return.
They returned to Venice They had been
married year, and Trafford looked forward
with fondest affections to the hope of having a
child of Nina's in his arms in July. He found
woman had been engaged to attend her-re-
commended by her cousin, Madame de Fleuran-
ges. 1t seemed the cousins still corresponded.
Nina spoke of her with affection; quite uncon-
scious, evidently, of Trafford's previous engage
ment to her. He had been equally SILENT of
course; and thus Nina never imagined they had
seen each other, Except, indeed, that evening
driving quickly away from Saint Cloud she and
Madame de Flcurangcs had left Paris next day
for Burgundy, where she staid a fortnight at
the Chateau de Fleuranges, and from thence
she had returned to Venice. She had, of course,
written to Madame de Fleuranges, to announce
her marriage to an Englishman by the name of
Traford. The latter lady had sent her kind,
short answer, and they had hardly exchanged
letters since.
The life of TrafTord and Nina passed on like
dream more than reality. Hepossessed the
one he had SO long and so faithfully sought and
worsllipped. He taught her to speak his own
language, and even to sing some of the airs he
loved best The melancholy sweetness of her
voice was one Of her chiefest charms. In the
long evenings she sat at his side, singing the mu.
sic he loved to hear-tha of the masters he pre-.
ferrcd to all others, Haydn and Mozart. With
infinite pains to please him, she learned some of
the sweet canzonets of the former" My Moth.
er bids me bind my Hair,"-"She never told
herLove," and the matchless Spirit Song, which,
in after years, he mourned over in memory as
type of one deeply loved and early lost.
Nina was delivered of son, still born; she
was doing well herself
Trafford sat ut her side: it was near midnight,
He looked at he: as she lay Shewa tsleep.
ing; her large, wakeful eyes were raised to his.
Her hand was. burning, but her pulse sinking.
"Gualter er"-so she transformed his name in
to her own soft language Gualtier, damni
la tua cara mano"
Traiiord laid his hand on her palm; she rails.
cd it to her lips. sudden sense of agonizing
fear shot through the heart of Traford. He
looked at the attendant who sat near; in the
dim light he couldnot distinguish her face Nj.
no spoke, but in a voice so faint that he could
hardly hear what she said.
"Cielo, 81 muorew said the woman, in con-
sternaton.
"Non nero, vado in cielow murmured the
dying Venetian. "Gualticr, ii rivedro-si-ora
pro me-"
She died an instant after pronouncing the last
words.
The woman crossed herself, cried, and said
to Trafford, who stood like stone, incapable
Misunderstanding, apparently, the full horror of
his loss,-
"E mora! Preghiamo per essa
Traford threw himself in distraction on the
form of the object he loved so truly. His was
the frenzed grief of one without hope, in this
world or the next. So sudden, so awful, had
been the wrench from nil he priced on earth,
that his mind-ill- l-rcgulatcd, impassioned to the
verge ofmadness gave way, and for six weeks
he was quite deranged.
lie woke up to reason and misery, to which
his very insanity seemed preferable. Without
sun, without star, how, oh! how was he,
most miserable, to drag on the weary years of
an existence stripped bare Of every charm and
every hope!
He continued to live in Venice. From the
home ofNna he would not, he could not, de.
part. Every stone of the old palace was to him
sacred, us having been once in the vicinity of
Nina. Adored when with him, she was wor-
shipped now that she was gone. Miserable III
mind and body, every energy extinct, Trafford,
many and many u time, determined to put an
end to Il life he could no longer endure. He
would 90 to the grave of his lost love; there
would he lay his noble head Oh the stone, and
watch and weep, like child more than man,
over the spot where slept the remains of his be-
loved Nina.
The people of the city, who knew him by
sight, believed him to be mad; and few could
have doubted it who saw the solitary fig
ure, wrapped in black cloak, glide regularly
each morning from the landing place, and spend
his days in the cemetery, as if he there COM
muned with the living, and not with the dead.
"She dead! she dcadp' would Traford ex-
claim to himself, as he sat alone in the starlight
nights near Nina's grave. "'She is not dead,
but sleepeth" Where are those words. Oh,
my Cod Had but died! What had she done {!
Heaven! SO young, so tender, so helpless! She
deadi Why insultmy grief with that words-
My eyes no longer see-these arms no longer
clasp, but yet from above can she descend like