Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1864-12-08
TOWANDA. BRADFORD COUNTY, Pa, DECEMBER 8, 1864

t bassador's residence, received secret orders
to quit his abode, and only found a cause il
S its speedy occupation by those marked
/ spies of the Republic who passed in and
7 out of the ducal palace.
J The lnquisition, however, had its OWL
: reason for leaving the Pesaro family undis
turbed Perhaps it was the designs Of the
mysterious powers Of the State to embroil
the house of Pesaro in criminal correspon-
dence with the Envoy Of France-perhap
| Fra Paola, who had free access to the Pesa-
| TO himself held a place III the terrible Coun-
Gil Of Three.
The side canals of Venice are not wide,
and looking across where the jealous Neni
tian blinds do not hide the view one can
easily observe the movements Of an oppo-
) site heighborhood. The rooms Of the palace
of the ambassador were carefully screened;
but yet the water door, the grand hall OF
entrance and the marble stairway that as.
cended from it, and the quick eye Of Eurico
did not fail to notice little figure, that
, from day to day glided over the marble
steps, or threw it's shadow across the mar
ble hall
Blanche was the only daughter of the am
bassador, and besides her there remained
to him no family She had just reached the
age when the romance of life is strongest
and the music stealing over the water from
floating canopics, and masked figures pass
ing like phantoms under the shadows of
palaces, and all the license and silence of
Venice, created for her strange charm,
both mysterious and dangerous The very
secrecy of Venetian intrigues contrasted
very favorably in her own romantic
thoughts with the brilliant prohigacy of the
court Of Versailles.
Nor was her face or figure such as to
pass mnoticed even among the most at
tractive of the Venetian beauties. The
brothers Pesaro wearied Of their Jealous
strife among the masked latrjguanteS who
frequcnted the table of the Ridotto, were
kindled into wholly new endcavor by sight
Of the blooming face of the western stla an
ger.
The difficulties which hcdged all approach
served here (as they always serve) to
quicken ingenuity and to multiply resour-
ces. The State was jealous of all COM
munication with the families of ambassa-
dorcs marriage with an alien on the part
of noble family was scrupulously forbid
den. Antonio was already betrothed to
the daughter of a noble house which never
failed Of means to avcnge his wrongs
EnricO, the younger, was, III tue eye of the
State, sworn to celibacy and the service of
the Church.
But the bright eyes of Blanche, and the
piquancy of her girlish, open look, were
stronger than forced bctrothal, or the
mOckery of monastic bonds Music from
musicians stole at night through the mar
row canal where rose the palace of the
Pesaro. Flowers from unseen hands were
tloated at morn upon the marble steps upon
which the balconies of the Pcsaro palace
looked doWn and always the eager and
girlish Blanche kept watch through the
kindly Venetian blinds for the figures which
stole by night over the surface of the wa
ter, and for the lights which glimmered in
the patrician house that stood over against
the palace of her father
\ French lady, moreover, brought with
her from her own court more liberty for
the revels Of the Ducal palace, and for the
sight of the halls Of the Riditto, than be-
longcd to the noble maidcns of Venice 1t
was not strange that the Pesaro brothers
! followed her thithcr, or that the gondoliers
who attended at the doors of the ambassa-
dor were accessible to the gold Of the We
nctan gaiants.
In all his other schemes Enrco had
sought merely to defeat the intrigues of
Antonio, and the pride of an offended broth
er, an oflcast Of the State. But in the pur-
suit Of Blanche there was a new and livclier
impulse. His heart was stirred to depth
that had never before been reached and to
a jealousy of Antonio was added defiance
Of the State which had shorn him of privi-
lcgcs, and virtually condemned him to an
aimlcss life.
But If EnricO was more cautious and dis
Greet, Antonio was more bold and daring.
There never was a lady, young or old,
| French or Venetian, who did not prefer
boldncss to watchfulncss, audacity to eau
ton. And therefore it was that Enrico-
kindIcd into new passion which consumed
all the old designs of his life-lost ground
in contention with the more adventurous
approaches Of Antonio.
Blanche, with the quick eye Of a woman,
and from the near windows Of the palace of
the ambassador saw the admiration of the
heirs of the Pesaro house; and looked with
greater favor upon the bolder adventures
Of Antonia. The watchful eyes Of Enrico
and of the masked Fra Paolo, in the gath
erings at the Ducal hail. or in the saloons
of the Ridotto, were not slow to observe the
new and dangerous favor which the senior
heir of the Pesaro name was winning from
the strange lady.
" 1t is well" said Eurico, as he sat clos
eted with his sanity adviser in a.chamber
of the Pesaro Palace, "t the State will never
permit the heir of a noble house to wed
with the daughter of an alien the Contor-
hi will never permit this stain upon their
honor. Let the favor which Blanche of
France shows to Antonio be known to the
State, and Antonio is"
"a banished man." said Fra Paolo, soft
ening the danger of the assumed fears of
his brother.
"And what then ~pursued Eurico, doubt
full.
"And then the discreet Enrico attains to
the right and privileges of his name"
" And Blanche p
" You know the law of the State, my
son"
GA base law !"
"Not so loud" said the cautious priest !;
1" the law has its exceptions. The ambassa-
dor is reputed rich. If his wealth could be
transferred to the State of Venice all would