St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-12-29


between hot kisses and ardent vows,
to recite to her canticles and ancient
prayers, and To feel die within him
uunder these hard experiences his art
lists soul.
But one evening the Duke Barazzo,
returning sooner than was his custom,
saw from his gondola by the light of
the stars man descend the steps of his
palace, take his place in his waiting
boat and glide away. The manner OF
this visitor appeared to him suspicious.
About to give the order to follow him,
he stopped, thought moment aud con-
tinued his route.
Upon her knees before her prie-dleu
Blanca prayed.
Her husband did not disturb her, but,
quietly passing to his apartments, called
the servants and questioned them.
Bought by gold and spurred by fear,
they willingly betrayed their mistress,
willingly rent the veil from her noctur-
nal orgies, and all night long BarazZO
dreamed of vengeance. The regular
crime sheltered under cover of the regu-
lar virtue called for special chastise-
ment, cruel, ferocious, and whose menu
DRY would last.
But none of the known torments and
sufferingS for faithless wives seemed
cruel enough to the wrath of this in
jured INSTRUMENTATION the punishment
of the Spaniard, de Ia Granddaughter.
the lover walled up alive in the presence
of his guilty mistress, nor that of the
aduiterous woman condemned TO drink
from the skull of her murdered lover.
LII each of these fortunes CeaSare found
found mitigating circumstances; de la
Grande-Bretiche has been aSphyXiated
too quickly. The skull of below ed
dead. 1t was terrible to profane it, but
was it truly so OdiOuS to touch it with
with kisses that remembered his kisses?
Did not the careSS redeem the Sacri-
lege?
The following evening Luigi Fattori
climbed as usual the marble staircase of
the Palace Barazzo, and as usual a
femme de chambre preceded him
through the silent corridors. Then,
wants turned upon him, stripped him,
bound him fast and left him there erect
at the end of the duchess chamber,
back to the wall and incapable of the
slightest movement. Not cry even
could escape his lips; cord wound
about his neck and fastened securely to
hooks in the masonry throttled him like
an iron hand.
"Madam," now said the Duke, for the
first time addressing his bewildered
wife. at the same instant presenting her
poinard. madam, we are ready:
come. you are going to kill for me this
man."
.'To kill him! l? Never" returned
Blanca.
"You are going to Kill him, l sayw
4, RI
She struggled, fought him, tore her
self from his grasp; in vain. Animated
for the moment with the strength of his
youth, the husband forced his wife to
drive the dagger to her lovers heart,
guiding it with his own hand and wrest-
ing it from her when the deed was
done, lest she turn it against him or
against herself.
Conquered by force, but defiant and
brazen to the last, she threw herself
beside the body and bathed it with her
tears, her husband watching her with
out word. strange smile curling his
white and compressed lips.
Presently he spoke:
II have punished you, Bianca," said
he, land l have punished justly. Prom
Use me new fidelity, and | will for
get the past"
rluCity W yOu ouO allo WOiCu Hiui
with scoring laughter. II love but
him. l have loved him living. L shall
love him dead, always and forever!'
always and forever, Madam, "CeSal e
repeated, ''Strange words for you to
say. but-Since you have said them, that
you love him dead; that you will love
him always and forever-yOu will swear
to this declaration%
Eyes, thousand timeS!'
Swear to it thenn
And Blanca, but woman after
all, with the sign of the cross to bind
her vow, and shaking limbs that longer
refused to sustain her, fell again by the
side of her dead lover.
How long she lay there / cannot tell
you, but when she recovered from her
swoon the Duchess Barazzo found her.
self upon her bed, bound hand and foot,
the naked corpse of Luigi Fattor bound
fast beside her, and the duke. her hus-
band, regarding them both with smiling
eyes.
For three long days and nights Blanca
lay there, silent as her husband and no
less smiling; but the fourth day, when.
without a hope of resurrection, the flesh
at her side began to decay and fright
full OdOr to rise from the corpse. her tor
tured body could bear it no longer-she
prayed and implored deliverance.
And still from the adjoining chamber,
as the day went by, and the pleading
voice grew fainter and fainter, the voice
of the duke infleXibly responded:
"You have sworn upon the cross,
madam, that you loved this man. that
you loved him dead, that you would
love him always and forever. 1t is now
my duty to see that YOU keep this VOW"
And this is why to-day, in the Barazzo
palace, in a chamber whose doors are
closed by solid masonry, there bleach
and crumble two Wondering skeletons.
the buried evidences of cruel crime
that in the eyes of the Venetian law
had been termed justice.