Evening journal., 1912-08-06
A Woman S
Vengeance
By BLANCA CARROLL


ares were. some of them. as much .
given to adventure as the men. About
the middle Of the sixteenth century /
the Mancini family were prominent 7
aud rich at Venice A brother and a
sister In the family were devoted 10 /
each other. the brother being a deli |
cute voung man given TO study rather
than 10 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
dulce In them without restraint. Pos
sihly this dissimnarity 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 number Of
suitors. Among them was Leonardo
Donadio, q man with a 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, when she was loung-
ing with the social magnates, as was
the custom on ST. Marks square, look
ing down the Grand canal she saw a
eondola approaching. and when II
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
q presentiment that something had
gone wrong, went 10 meet It. 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 It for some moments, para
lived. She did not faint: she did not
cry out. Her first words were:
''who has done this murder?"
Leonardo Donadio. signorina," 10
Piled the gondolier. "He met your
brother on the Rialtoiand said to him,
sYou win not stand long between me
and your sister They fought and
your brother fell pierced to the heart
He was no match for that rufian, who
fs the best swordsman In Venice"
Those were queer times, ana Donadio
had a 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 It 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 OF 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 It.
One day while a gondola was pass
ing under his window he heard two
men in il speaking OF a young man
who had recently arrived from Naples
and had opened a 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 go 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 Donadio7" sait
the man. "where are you going afte
your long stay shut up In your homer
Donadio, thinking the man some on
he had met, but forgotten. told hin
that he was going to a new fencin
school he had heard had been opened
''You do not need 20 go there 90 NEE
the new fencing master. He stand
before you"
Putting of the beard, the strange
displayed the features of Blanca Mar
cini. Donadio recOiled. for with th
other hand Blanca drew her rapier.
''You got rid OF what you considere
the only barrier between you and me
my brother. You now see another bsi
rier, myself, which you are TO dispos
Of in the same way. have been ed,
Gated under the best masters Of the al
Of fencing in Rome and Naples. Draw
I returned TO meet you, but since 20
never left your home ] have bee
obliged to draw you out by stratagem
Donadio could not go aside No
straight ahead. the passage bein
blocked. Thinking 70 dominate the w
man. he drew his sword. resolving I
disarm her first and talk with her af
erward. He was soon astonished
the skill with which she parried h
shrusts. She did not at once assun
~ the offensive, evidently feeling a vii
~lictive relish in playing with hir
Then suddenly she began to press hi
with rapid and wen executed thrust
Donadio who had not handled a swol
since he had killed her brother. four
himself no match for this fury, who
blade glittering before him dazzled hh
Then he felt the cold steel in his sid
and as he fell he was stabbed aga
and again. The last picture that fad
from his gaze was one OF vengeance