I tried by a thousand endearing words to call her back to
consciousness. She slowly recovered, and half opening her eyes - "where
am I?" murmured she faintly. "Here," exclaimed I, pressing her to my
bosom. "Here! close to the heart that adores you; in the arms of your
faithful Ottavio!"
"Oh no! no! no!" shrieked she, starting into sudden life and
terror - "away! away! leave me! leave me!"
She tore herself from my arms; rushed to a corner of the saloon, and
covered her face with her hands, as if the very sight of me were
baleful. I was thunderstruck - I could not believe my senses. I followed
her, trembling, confounded. I endeavored to take her hand, but she
shrunk from my very touch with horror.
"Good heavens, Bianca," exclaimed I, "what is the meaning of this? Is
this my reception after so long an absence? Is this the love you
professed for me?"
At the mention of love, a shuddering ran through her. She turned to me
a face wild with anguish. "No more of that! no more of that!" gasped
she - "talk not to me of love - I - I - am married!"
I reeled as if I had received a mortal blow. A sickness struck to my
very heart. I caught at a window frame for support. For a moment or
two, everything was chaos around me. When I recovered, I beheld Bianca
lying on a sofa; her face buried in a pillow, and sobbing convulsively.
Indignation at her fickleness for a moment overpowered every other
feeling.
"Faithless - perjured - " cried I, striding across the room. But another
glance at that beautiful being in distress, checked all my wrath. Anger
could not dwell together with her idea in my soul.
"Oh, Bianca," exclaimed I, in anguish, "could I have dreamt of this;
could I have suspected you would have been false to me?"
She raised her face all streaming with tears, all disordered with
emotion, and gave me one appealing look - "False to you! - they told me
you were dead!"
"What," said I, "in spite of our constant correspondence?"
She gazed wildly at me - "correspondence! - what correspondence?"
"Have you not repeatedly received and replied to my letters?"
She clasped her hands with solemnity and fervor - "As I hope for mercy,
never!"
A horrible surmise shot through my brain - "Who told you I was dead?"
"It was reported that the ship in which you embarked for Naples
perished at sea."
"But who told you the report?"
She paused for an instant, and trembled -
"Filippo!"
"May the God of heaven curse him!" cried I, extending my clinched fists
aloft.
"Oh do not curse him - do not curse him!" exclaimed she - "He is - he is
- my husband!"
This was all that was wanting to unfold the perfidy that had been
practised upon me. My blood boiled like liquid fire in my veins. I
gasped with rage too great for utterance. I remained for a time
bewildered by the whirl of horrible thoughts that rushed through my
mind. The poor victim of deception before me thought it was with her I
was incensed. She faintly murmured forth her exculpation. I will not
dwell upon it. I saw in it more than she meant to reveal. I saw with a
glance how both of us had been betrayed. "'Tis well!" muttered I to
myself in smothered accents of concentrated fury. "He shall account to
me for this!"
Bianca overhead me. New terror flashed in her countenance. "For mercy's
sake do not meet him - say nothing of what has passed - for my sake say
nothing to him - I only shall be the sufferer!"
A new suspicion darted across my mind - "What!" exclaimed I - "do you
then fear him - is he unkind to you - tell me," reiterated I,
grasping her hand and looking her eagerly in the face - "tell
me - dares he to use you harshly!"
"No! no! no!" cried she faltering and embarrassed; but the glance at
her face had told me volumes. I saw in her pallid and wasted features;
in the prompt terror and subdued agony of her eye a whole history of a
mind broken down by tyranny. Great God! and was this beauteous flower
snatched from me to be thus trampled upon? The idea roused me to
madness. I clinched my teeth and my hands; I foamed at the mouth; every
passion seemed to have resolved itself into the fury that like a lava
boiled within my heart. Bianca shrunk from me in speechless affright.
As I strode by the window my eye darted down the alley. Fatal moment! I
beheld Filippo at a distance! My brain was in a delirium - I sprang from
the pavilion, and was before him with the quickness of lightning. He
saw me as I came rushing upon him - he turned pale, looked wildly to
right and left, as if he would have fled, and trembling drew his sword.
"Wretch!" cried I, "well may you draw your weapon!"
I spake not another word - I snatched forth a stiletto, put by the sword
which trembled in his hand, and buried my poniard in his bosom. He fell
with the blow, but my rage was unsated. I sprang upon him with the
blood-thirsty feeling of a tiger; redoubled my blows; mangled him in my
frenzy, grasped him by the throat, until with reiterated wounds and
strangling convulsions he expired in my grasp. I remained glaring on
the countenance, horrible in death, that seemed to stare back with its
protruded eyes upon me. Piercing shrieks roused me from my delirium. I
looked round and beheld Bianca flying distractedly towards us. My brain
whirled. I waited not to meet her, but fled from the scene of horror. I
fled forth from the garden like another Cain, a hell within my bosom,
and a curse upon my head.
