Idaho news. (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1887-1891, 1890-08-23

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y s5zsSs5 or two every day
i after dinner, while
smoking his cigar.
Possessor of a great name and col
lossal fortune, related to the most
ancient families of Roman practici-
ate, the count had made a marriage
otloye. He had espoused, five years
previously, the daughter Of Prince
CineIla-superb and placid as a
Raphael blonde and stately as q
Titan. A cultivated man-elegaut,
young, handsome, loving and beloved
the count could not be other than
perfectly happy, ADD he was. During
eight months of the year, from No
vember to June, he dweltin Florence,
the city 0: palaces and pleasures. At
the periods of intense heat he came
to Casamiccola and installed himself
in a coquettish, vine clad little villa,
hung on the TANKS OF the mountain,
| by the side the sea, between the blue
of the water and the blue ofthe sky
corner made for reading love sto-
ries and for loving. He lived here
during the summer, enjoying with
his wife the solitude deux, drinking
in long draughus OF love, enchanted
with the su2light-a spoiled child OF
fortune.
One suffocating evening toward
the last of July, the count accord
ing to his custom, shortly after din
ner kissed his vile and went out. 1t
was about eight O'Clock. The all
was sultry and oppressive; not a
breath of wind stirred among the
leaves of the fig and orange trees,
white with dust. The sea, OF an
azure Opaque and profound, stretched
away toward the horizon smooth as
a sea of oil, and the sky, saturated
with heat, was of blue SO intense
and implacable as to appear stone
gray. Along the winding streets
peasants, seated on the doorsteps
were drinking Sicilian wine from the
wide mouthed, leathern bottles. anC
groups Of beautiful young girls
brown as the F'lorentine bronzes
flung back and forth, amid peals o
laughter, flowers less red than thu
coral of their lips Barefooted ur
chins with eyes of jet, were driving
the white goats slowly homeward
long after they had passed, the tink
ling Of the little bells, hung rounC
their necks, could be heard.
This charming spectacle, Away
the same, yet always new, neve
wearied the count. He reached TIN
top OF the hill and passed rapid,
out to the quay. The night hac
come, superb, and the stars appear
ed, one by one, like eyes ofgold look
. ing down on the slumbering island.
, Suddenly, in a second, in less tim
: than it takes the lightning to fash
, the earth trembled as if shaken b.
the march of invisible armies armie
of giants. The sea, chopping an
. agitated, hurled it's waves togethe
: in wild confusion; the heavens veile
!, themselves in black; a sulphurou
4 wind, like n blast from q furnace
r breathed devastation, and in awlt
K darkness, the count, terrified, recon
mending his soul to God in that 81
Z preme instant of lucidity which a
r ways precedes dreadful death, wa
It thrown violently forward on his fac
" The first thing which Count JepI
saw on regaining consciousness wa
. star looking down at him, the
two, then three, and all the beautifu
r cortege of the silent sky. He r
manned motionlegs O few moment
. uncertain what had happened I
n him, then he arose and walked n fe
steps, he was not wounded Wha
Y, then, had taken place? What 70
,e midable power had thrown him, vi
resisting, to the ground? Theamo
" Gus sea was washing the beach wit
IS it's silyery waves, the heavens we
IL clear as the eyes of q bride, o gent
ne breeze was stirring-all was ealr
IL Yet strange circumstance, he Il
n longer recognized the country aboI
re him, hehorizon seemed to him mo
v, even and more level than before.
n Suddenly, hecomprehended all, Il
frightful truth-the earthquak