Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1862-10-10

more charming ana more conscious OF her
power; the morning of a new life Of hap
! piness Frightened before her, and she look
ed forward with increasing coniid snce to the
approaching revelation.
Thus the wedding day arrived under the
happiest auspices. A magnificent as EN-
bly, Was gathered in the Gradengo palace,
and the handsome and Joyous brid groom
awaited with impntience the moment which
should disclose to him the features of his
bride. But that moment changed all. The
instant that Valencia. throwing eff her veil.
revealed that glory Of golden hair floating
and glitrering about her person, The frenzy
returned upon him with double violence.
= She has deceived me he cried. in a
wild burst Of anger, and breaking his way
madly through the astonished company,
rushed forth without word of explanation
to Grad.nigo, or casting so much as look
on the deserted bride.
That from this hour a deadly feud, like
that of the Montagues and Capulets. di-
vided the houses of Foscarini and Graden-
igo, was matter of course. Valencia
alone could not share this feeling. She
blamed her own fraud. so innocently meant,
as the sole cause of the calamity, and
] mourned her second lover with sorrow
far more deep and lasting than she had gwen
to the first. Her father gave himself no
rest in his effarts to avenge the dishonor of
his house. But for the present he was able
only to-oatain the expatriation of young
Antonio, and this under the honorable form
of an embassy to France. He bided his
| time.
After four years absence, Antonio re-
turned to Venice. His welcome home was
summons, the fruit Of Gradenigo's labors,
TO appear before the Council of Three 10
answer the charge of disobedience in Ger.
/ tain points to the orders Of the Council.
| His bold defence, and the conclusive proofs
he sdduced Of the skillful manner in which
he had performed his mission, procured his
honorable acquittal. But plots thickened
around his path, enemies lurked for him on
every hand, and time after lime he barely
/ escaped through the warnings of an un-
/ known friend. That friend was no other
! than the irue-hearted Valencia. who watch
ed over him like a protecting angel, nor
even relinquished her chosen Office when
/ he entered into marriage engagement with
noble Spanish lady. But il was the OPP
portunity long watched for by her father
| who now accused him before the Council
of a secret alliance with a foreign power
and procured his in prisonment. Valencia
1 had warned him in season, and had ar
ranged his fight; but, too proud TO sue
cumb TO injustice, he hesitated till it was too
late. He was brought in chains to the du-
cal palace, where, according 10 the ancient
usages of Venice, speedy trial. to be
followed by speedier death, awaited him
| Valenza did not despair even yet. BY
gold and tears she gained an entrance to
the Doge's palace, and having won The over
seer to her interests, she descended with
him, at midnight, into those damp and
gaysyFav depths beneath, who dread ss.crets
only the last day will fully reveal. At any
other time, the scene would have frozen her
blood with horror. The black passages in
to which the cheerful light of upper day
had never shined, and Shiny with the mois-
ture of centuries, the heavy doors, boIted
and barred, which the lamp of the guide
dimly disclosed on either hand, the sepul-
chral silence, broken only by the dull play
of the water against the outside walls and
the loud knocking of her own heart, were
full of dark suggestions of pittiless cruelty
and unutterable woe. But that which would
have deferred weaker soul but made her
bold; for was she moi briaging to the best
be loved deliverence from these horrors
And was there not exquisite joy in the
thought that now at length he could not fail
TO understand and forgive her? The iailer
unbars door she steps in trembling with
fear and hope. The next instant the door
is shut behind her, is licked and barred with
malignant haste, and the unhappy girl finds
herself prisoner! Her pretended helper
had betrayed her to her father. All was
lost
With the first gray Of morning she was
brought, wearing the mans habit in which
she had disguised herself, before the Coun-
Gil of Three, of which her father was
member. The first glance told her that
there was no hope Of pity from him. As
she entered, he started passionately from
his seat, and poured upon his wretched
daughter, as she stood trembling before him, |
torrent of the biiterest reproach. ending |
with a fearful curse. Exhausted by the /
lerrors of the preceding night. and foresee-
ing her own and Antonio's doom, she Weld |
ed TO this last stroke. and sunk in a deep
swoon into the arms of the .iailer. Even /
he, her betrayer, hardened as he was in |
crime, was shocked by the unnatural scene. /
"Signor." he cried, you are here as the
servant Of the state, and not as the ayenger
of your personal wrongs. You are the re-
preventative of justice, but you have no
commission TO curse your own child"
This is the moment chosen by the artist
for his picture.
Through what fortunes the hapless pair,
with fates SO strangely severed and yet
more strangely united, passed to the repose
of death, we are not informed. Only so
much is known, that from this time the no.
bic and brave Antonio. the flower of the
patrician youth of Venice, and Valencia,
the fairest OF her daughters, were seen and
heard of no more among the living.
NEVER SoLK.-Better draw the cork Of
your indignation, and let II foam and iiumc.
than. wire it down to turn sour and acrid