Year: 1860

to compliance with lady's wish, and inme-
diately turning from the group of friends
with whom he was conversing, he gallantly
offered his hand to the domino, and led her,
with compliment, to the quadrille just then
forming beneath the middle chandelier of the
great gallery.


Can you not fancy how the heart of that
young girl must have beat, as determined to
attain the object for which she had run this
risk, she whispered in her partners ears
words of deep meaning, upon which her
whole future life hung? Can you not fancy
how that stricken heart must have faltered
when the words of truth, bright with his un-
stained honor, fell from the lips of the duke ?
For the first time, perhaps, the name of the
real object of his love was breathed by him.
1t was the eldest daughter of the Countess de
Montijo to whom he was devoted, and to her
was he resolved to disclose the secret on this
very night. No hope could therefore remain
to the unhappy victim who had sought the
secret which was to be her own condemna.
ton. She withdrew from the hail. What
had she to seek further amid that gay throng ?
She hurried home and flung herself in des-
pair upon the couch she had left but to seek
the despair with which the years of her fa-
ture life were to be embittered.


At dawn the ladies returned from the hail.
All were glad and joyous-but one above the
rest and she could not resist the temptation
to seek her best friend in order to make her
participate in the joy which the dukes pro-
position had inspired. She entered softly,
for she thought her friend was sleeping She
approached the bed and shrieked aloud with
dismay at beholding the invalid to whom she
had hidden adieu few hours before, and
who had retired for slunber in nightcap and
bedgown, lying now outside the coverlet,
wrapped in black domino, with the mask
she had worn torn from her face and clutch
ed with convulsive grasp in her hand. She
called aloud, but no answer was returned, in
another moment she perceived, even by the
light of the moon, which streamed in at the
chamber window, that the firm was insensi-
bic which lay before her, and that the fea-
lures were working as fin the throes of the
death ag ny. The house was aroused, and
the fmily came in haste to the bedside to
behold with horror the confirmation of the
suspicion which had struck them from the
first. Assistance had only just come in time
the evidence which lay before them in the
shape of the empty phial and the warning
label, indicated the nature of the antidote to
be administered. Every help was given, and
after awhile the effect of this moments aber-
ration had passed away, even to the moral
regret of beholding the Duke the husband of
another. The generous impulse of the bride
elect contributed much, they say, to this de.
sired consummation; for not till she was as
sured that the despair of unrequitted love
had been overcome would she consent to
leave her friends md accept the highest name
and fortune in Spain. Such is the story
told in the chronicles of Madrid, and many
people in Paris who are intimate with the
parties concerned have often affirmed it.
The relaxed nerves of the countenance, the
quivering eyelids of the heroine of The tale
herself happy wife and mother now-are
often quoted to bear witness of its truth
and we give it in testimony of the generous
nature of the Duchess, as we'll as of the
strength of mind which enabled her friend
to forego the selfish indulgence in hopeless
sorrow, which would have blighted both ex.
istences forever