Webster City freeman. [volume] (Webster City, Hamilton County, Iowa) 1884-1946, 1915-08-03
The Stories of
Famou. Novels
By Albert Payson Terhune
zANONI
BY BuIwer-Lytton

Copyright. 1913, by The Press Publish
ing Co.
| Viola Pisani was making her stage
! debut as prima donna in her fathers
new opera, at Naples. The fortunes
of singer and opera alike hung in the
| balance. The tide turned in the favor
| of both when a handsome man in a
| proscenium box sprang to his feet
and started the applause.
The man was a mysterious person.
age known as Zanoni. He was said to
be enormously rich, and he seemed of
early middle age. Yet there were
some people who could remember see
ing him sixty and even seventy years
earlier and who declared he had not
changed in appearance all that time.
ZanOni was one of the last surviving
members of mystic cult, or "Zabala,"
whose votaries, by occult studies of
the forces of nature, were able to pro.
long their lives indefinitely. One of
the conditions of this perpetual life
was that the supreme love of woman
should not enter the heart. ZanOni
causing Viola's success as a singer.
For he found himself in danger of
growing fond of the young prima dom
ma.
Two years later he came back. BY
this time Viola had become a celebrity.
And she counted her adorers by the
score. Chief among them was an Ital-
ian Prince who was even then plan
ming to kidnap her. A young English
artist, Clarence Glyndon, also loved
the beautiful singer, as did Nicot, a
French crook.
Scarcely had Zanoni and Viola met
again when each fell hopelessly in love
with the other. Zanoni would not con-
fess his love, but pretended to feel only
brotherly interest in the girl. This
piqued and distressed her; the more
SO as she made no secret of her own
alteration for him.
Zanoni learned of the Princes plot
to kidnap Viola. He rushed to her
home and begged her to fly with him
at once in order to escape the band
sending to abduct her. Viola refused,
saying she could not throw herself on
the protection of any man who did not
love her.
Zanoni, swept off his feet by the
excitement of the moment, caught her
in his arms, crying out that he loved
her above all the world. Instantly he
felt his magic power begin to wane.
And just then the Princes men rushed
in. They carried Viola away, leaving
Zanoni senseless on the floor.
But the man of mystery still had suf-
fcient magic to protect the girl and to
cause the Prince to be slain in a drunk
en- brawl Then Zanoni and Viola fed
from Naples. They were married and
went to live in palace on one of the
Isles of Greece.
Later, with their little son, they re-
turned to civilization and stopped for
a time in Venice. Glyndon, who still
loved Viola, told the happy young wife
that her husband was magician. Her
love for Zanoni changing to fear, Viola
ran away from him, taking their child
to Paris, where the French Revolution
was at it's height. There she found
work as a seamstress.
Nicot, the crook who had so long
loved Viola, now sought again to win
her. He began by denouncing Glyn-
guillotIne. But Moot, too. was de.
nounced and arrested. And so, through
the spite of another woman was Viola.
Zanoni, ever seeking Viola. arrived
in Paris to find his wife had been con-
demned to death and was to die on the
morrow. Vainly he exerted all his
mystic influence to save her. He learn
ed that two days later the Reign of
Terror was to be ended by Robes
pierre's overthrow; and he sought to
gain a days reprieve for Viola.
But the utmost he could achieve was
permission to die on the scaffold in
her stead. He went to her cell for a
last word with her. She was overjoyed
to see him. He did not tell her of the |
sacrifice he had made, and she sup
posed that on the morrow they were
both to go free. Thus, strangely re-
united, they sat side by side. in the
dusky cell, until Viola at last fell
asleep.
When she awoke Zanoni was no
longer there. He had gone to the gull
lotine to lay down his life for hers
The shock of learning at how terrible
a price her safety had been bought was
too much for Viola's shattered nerves.
When the jailers came next day to set
her at liberty they found her dead.