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��THE GRANITE MONTHLY.
��complete love, and I have felt you would love me. I have looked over my past and my future, and compared the happiness of power with that of love. At thirty I should have chosen power ; to-day I prefer love, such as you and I can feel. I know all human joys, and there is but one of them real."
"I thought," ventured Lucrecia, "that you had a political mission."
" I had one, but have none now," replied he. " Europe is to-day defi- nitely constructed. The Duke of Reichstadt will never be any thing ex- cept the son of the archduchess of Austria. 1 love power and that was why I stayed at Florence. It was a luxury for me to feel myself stronger than the liberals who died in the name of an impracticable idea, and who, in their enthusiasm suffered more slavery in order to conquer a chimerical liberty. I have reached that age when one must seize the opportunities as they pass, for they do not return next day. I wish to realize true happiness — that which exists by itself, outside of all conventionalities, and without car- ing for the opinions of others. I wish to devote to this happiness what re- mains to me of youth and faith, and that is why I am here. That is why I wished to see you alone, and far from ail that could call you to pretend- ed duties. Lucrecia, I have spoken thus to you because the bonds which bound me to the world are severed, and I am free, and am yours forever."
Lucrecia still struggled, but she had long been conquered. Honor, respect for her oath, both protested in her heart against the victorious passion ; but she could find no means of resist- ance, and perhaps if she had found them she would have rejected them, because of all the thoughts which filled her agitated mind, the most ter- rible was the fear of losing him a second time.
They abandoned themselves to a delicious intoxication, while the hours rolled by, one by one, and while the twinkling stars disappeared in the blue heavens. Now they walked slowly,
��bending the low branches of the trees, the sound of their footsteps deadened by the thick grass, murmuring softly at intervals ; now they hurried along the dusty road, tearing the flowers from the bushes and throwing them to the winds with joyous cries. They seemed in a sort of enchanted world.
"What a night ! Is this not supreme happiness?" they exclaimed. "Ah! if it would only last for ever !"
But the first rays of the sun already shot through the thick branches, and a line of light in the horizon showed the silhouette of the mountains ; it was clay, and this was the end.
chapter v.
After this there was no more strug- gle nor care. They did not separate, for theirs was a complete love, which sought neither for secrecy nor for in- dulgence. If her fall was great, it was proudly borne. Without change, without transition, they saw their aus- tere Countess Palandra, whom they had admired at a distance as a heroine worthy of Rome, suddenly give herself up to a stranger, an ally of their oppressor, and ride out proudly with him in her carriage. It was a sad sur- prise for Piatoja — a sort of public bereavement. Not that in Italy opinion stigmatizes these faults as we do : but because the beautiful girl was surrounded by the prestige that the Italians accord to their illustrious citi- zens. She was the "Pistojian muse," and also the "goddess Lucrecia."
The Marquise Malespini and her friends did not fail to blame her, but they did not cry out against her, and all continued to receive Marcel as before. Monsieur Rospigliosi prayed for her, and all trembled when they thought of Palandra's return.
Meanwhile Lucrecia was happy; drinking with deep draughts the cup of love ; forgetting the future, enjoy- ing only the present, without regard for those around her. No one ever surprised a look of shame or remorse on her haughty brow ; but if the priest who had scrutinized her thoughts from
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