Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-10-09
CHAPTER XXI. NgTTpDrp AT TuR ATTAR


 The day at last arrived on which Masa- niello was to marry Isabella, on which he was to contract, in the presence of the Arch bishop of Naples, and in the chapel of the castle itself, the happy alliance which realized all his dreams and crowned all his hopes and on this day Masanello was dyingl The poison he had absorbed by smelling the per fume of Isabella's bouquet had worked since the night before with frightful activity upon his feverish and passionate organization. The fisherman experienced moments of ecstasy, of furious delirium, of such profound pros tration and of such complete annihilation of all his faculties, that he seemed to have reached his last hour.
 The sanctuary was being dccked out, and the altar covered with flowers and golden reliquaries; the happy Isabella was trying on her marriage dress; ill word, all the preparations for the union were on the point of completion when Masaniello, after a most violent crisis, felt that the hour of his death agony was come.
 The officers who served him hastened to acquaint the viceroy with the fact and sent for Dom Francesca to attend the dying man. The Benedictine made all possible haste to reach his bedside.
 He remained for some time standing near the bed of suffering on which the nanimate DOQy Ol HIS dUOpISu son lay SGIeCcne1t. Qe took the latter's hands in his own and wiped away the cold precipitation which wetted his forehead; twenty times, too, did he call on him in his most tender and persuasive voice
 The fisherman at last opened his eyes
 "Father-I am dying! he n1urmured.
 He could say no more, but lay motionless on his couch.
 "Oh, heaveni heaven! they have poisoned him" exclaimed the Benedictine, horror struck.
 Dom Francesca was skilled in medicine; he had long studied botany, and had particu- larly devoted himself to the investigation of those numerous and subtle poisons of which the Italian aristocracy had preserved the re- cipes ever since the horrible times of the Borgia and the Medici. He looked for the traces of crime in Masaniello's apartment, and recognized them iu faded bouquet that had fallen from the uncertain grasp of the dying man on to the floor. He gathered up the last portions of these fatal flowers and plucked them leaf by leaf to pieces; then hiding them under his robe he called one of Masaniello's officers.
 'This young man is dying" he said to him. "Alas! he is still very young to finish career which he has succeeded in rendering so glo- rious. The emotions of these few last days have killed him."
 The officer. an old Spaniard, devoted to the Duke of Arcos, made no reply.
 ''I will run to the Church del Garmine and fetch the last sacraments," added the Bene- dictine. "Do not quit the room in my ab- sence."
 Dom Francesca i.n1nediately got into a calessino, drove in a few minutes over the distance that separated him from his monas- tery, and taking little glass vial out of his cell returned with it in all haste to the palace of the Duke of Arcos. The monk gently opened the fsherman's lips and poured few drops of the cordial into his mouth.
 Under the influence of the generous liquor Masaniello experienced nervous feeling ot shivering, raised his trembling frame and looked round him with an air of alright.
 The monk dipped the end of piece oi linen in the vial and rubbed the palms of the | patients hands, as we'll as his temples and eyelids with it.
 "Oh, father, father, what ease you have procured me-" said poor Masaniello in 2 tremulous voice, feeling new life as he spoke
 The Benedictine continued his paternal as distance until he had placed him out oi danger,
 But the fisherman had lost all his strength his head was weak, while strange noises rang in his ears, and the room seemed to be turn ing round him.
 Dom Francesca hastened to the officer iz the ante-chamber.
 s:Brother," said he to him, ''you have for gotten to bestow on me slight aims, whici the monks who pray at the pillow of dying man always receive"
 The officer felt for piece of money in the | pocket of his doublet. 1 t.It is not money that ask for, but to fal colaxione," continued Dom Francesca. in ar ebsequious tone.