The Dickinson press., 1894-06-30
Tancred's Heroic Daughter Drank Poi.
son from her Lovers Heart.

son from her Lovers Heart.
One of the most romantic of all
italian stories is told anew by Marion
Crawford in the July humble. of The
Century. Describing the great citi.
del of Amal6, Mr. Crawford says:
Court within court, rampant be.
hind rampant, tower upon tower, the
ancient pile rises from the rocks of
the sky, l%abyrinthine in its intricacy
and colossal in its strength. Some.
where beneath one of these deserted
courts lies the hidden underground
chamber to which Ghismonda went
daily by the secret passage from her
room above, while Guiscardo, her
lover, let himself down by a knotted
rope through the aperture, over.
grown with shrubs, and with thorns
so sharp that he wore leathern clothes
to protect himself. Ghismonda was
Tancred's daughter, and Guiscardo
was one of her fathers gentlemen at.
arms. 1t is a grim and yet a very
tender story of n very true love. For
some eason which deeper students
may discover, Ghismonda did not
marry again when her husband, the
Duke of Capua's son, died after a
few months of wedlock, and she
loved the handsome young soldier to
despair, though his station was too
far beneath her for an open alliance.
So they met and loved, and met
again. till one day, growing holder,
she led him in an evil hour up the Sc.
cret stair to her own apartment,
where, though she did not guess it,
Tancred sat nodding behind a cur
tain, half asleep in the MONDAY heat
after dinner, and waiting for his
daughter, with whom he loved to
spend an hour in pleasant converse.
ton during the long afternoons.
And as the lovers were there togeth-
er, Tancred saw and heard them, un.
seer and unheard. Being as wise as
he was brave. he choked down his
anger, and waited q whole day be.
fore he spoke. Then Guiscardo was
taken at nightfall by two men, and
brought secretly to his lord, and Tan
cred reproached him with tears.
But the young man made only one
short answer, "L0ve. is far stronger
than you or l." he said, and so was
led away to his death. And Tancred,
heavy at heart, spoke bitterly to his
daughter, and most bitterly Of all be.
cause she had loved one beneath her.
Then he was silent, and waited for
her reply with bowed head. CHS.
monda turned upon him, dry.eyed
and brave, as women sometimes were
in those desperate days; and Messer
Giovanni Boccacci has recorded what
she said, defending her faith and
honor.
"For it is true, she answered, "that
l have loved Guiscardo, and love him
now, and shall love him while I live,
though that be not long; and if be.
yond death n loves, I shall not
cease from loving him. For you,
Tancred, my father, are Of flesh and
bone and blood, and your daughter is
like you, and not of stone or iron;
and see, I have lived so little that ]
am still young and much more to q
like intent. "And so" she said at
last. "if you are grown cruel in your
old age as you used not to be, be cru
ell now, even to me; for I tell you that
if you do not to me what you have
done to G%uiscardo, my own hands
shall do that same mischief on my.
self"
And Tancred was cruel indeed, for
he took Guiscardo's heart, and placed
it in a precious golden vessel and sent
it to his daughter. But she brewed
poison, when she had wept many
tears, and filed the cup. and drank
her death from her lovers heart, and
lay down to die, pressing it to hel
own, and crying: 30 much loved
heart, my service to thee is fulfilled
nor is there anything left for me to
do but to come with my own SOU
and bear thine company forever
And Tancred came and wept over her
and repented of what he had done;
but she spoke bitterly once more, and
asked only that her body might be
buried with him she loved. Their
she pressed the dead heart once more
to her bosom. "God be with you,'
she said, .'for I am going" So sh.
died, and was laid beside her lovel
somewhere in Salerno.
People were in earnest in those
days. To love was to live; to be cut
off from love was death-real, literal
cruel death.>