Ellsworth American., 1912-07-31
A Woman 5
Vengeance
BY BLANCA CARROLL

tHe manclnl Iamlly were prominent
| and rich at Venice. A brother and
sister In the family were devoted to
each other, the brother being deli
cate young man given to study rather
than to arms. Blanca, his sister, was,
unlike him, fond Of manly sports and
| constantly regretted that she had not
been born q man that she might In
dulge in them without restraint. Pos
| sibly this dissimilarity is what united
| the brother and sister. The one was
gentle, refined, intellectual, the other
naturally aggressive and without much
mental cultivation.
Nevertheless Blanca possessed fair
| face and figure and had a number of
| suitors. Among them was Leonardo
Donadio, man with bad reputation
| and therefore undesirable. Blanca told
him, as she had told all the others, that
she would not marry because she did
| not wish to be separated from her
| brother
One afternoon, whensshe was loung
| ing with the social magnates, as was
the custom on st. Marks square, look
| ing down the Grand canal she saw a
| gondola approaching, and when 1t
came nearer she recognized her family
colors. The gondola was pulled up
near the pillar bearing the winged
| lions of st. Marks, and Blanca, under
presentiment that something had
gone wrong, went to meet 1t. AS the
boat came up, there, lying in the gon-
| dola, his cloak red with blood, was the
dead body Of her brother. She stood
gazing at 1t for some moments, para
lyzed She did not faint; she did not
cry out. Her first words were:
who has done this murder?"
Leonardo Donadio, signorina," re-
piled the gondolier. HE met your
brother on the Rialto and said to him,
You will not stand long between me
and your sister, They fought and
your brother fell pierced to the heart.
He was no match for that ruffian, who
Is the best swordsman In Venice"
Those were queer times, and Donadio
had faint hope that even after what
he had done he might still win Blanca.
She was not seen abroad after her
brothers death, and finally 1t was
learned that she had left Venice.
Where she had gone or what she had
gone for was not known.
Six months passed, during which
time nothing was seen or heard of
Blanca. Donadio, who was wildly in
love with her, seemed crazed by her
withdrawal. Had she remained In
Venice and lashed him with a torrent
of invective he could have borne up
under it, but this vacancy she had left,
this nothingless. was agonizing. He
shut himself up in his house and
would not go out of 1t.
One day while gondola was pass
Ing under his window he heard two
men In 1t speaking Of young man
who had recently arrived from Naples
and had opened fencing academy.
AS they were passing out Of hearing
he heard one of them say. "Not even
the skill of Donadio could prevail
against him"
This was the only thing that could
have aroused the recluse from his de-
spondency. He would so and see this
fencer, and II he appeared to be wor-
thy Of his steel he would insult him
and, by killing him, would show that
Donadio's match had not yet appeared.
The next day he left his house for
the first time, not by water, but by
taking one of the narrow interior pas
sages, He had scarcely closed the
door behind him when the narrow way
was blocked by young man, whose
black beard covered his whole face.
The beard contrasted with the mans
complexion, which was soft and clear,
more like wax than flesh and blood.
"How now, Signor Donadio?" said
the man. Where are you going after
your long stay shut up In your homer
Donadio, thinking the man some one
he had met, but forgotten. told him
that he was going to new fencing
school he had heard had been opened.
"You do not need to go there to meet
the new fencing master. He stands
before you"
Putting Off the beard, the stranger
displayed the features Of Blanca Man,
cini Donadio recoiled, for with the
other hand Blanca drew her rapier.
"You got rid of what you considered
the only barrier between you and me
my brother. You now see another bar
rier, myself, which you are to dispose
of In the same way. / have been edu.
Gated under the best masters Of the art
of fencing in Rome and Naples. Draw!
returned to meet you, but since you
never left your home l have been
obliged to draw you out by stratagem."
Donadio could not go aside nor
straight ahead. the passage being
blocked Thinking to dominate the wo'
man, he drew his sword, resolving to
disarm her first and talk with her att
erward. He was soon astonished at
the skill with which she parried his
thrusts. She did not at once assume
the offensive, evidently feeling vim
l. -TwxA~ ~