Vittoria, Complete

ch were anciently built upon the Oriental principle of giving shade at the small cost of excluding common air. It was dusky noon there through the hours of light, and thrice

a sultan's daughter: Shocking! shocking! One of a company of ten that were living a secluded life in chaste privacy! Oh, Barto, Barto! must I charge it to thy despicable leather or to my incessant pilgrimages? One fair toe! I fear presently the corruption of the remaining nine: Then, alas! what do I go on? How shall I come to a perfumed end, who walk on ten indecent toes? Well may the delicate gentlemen sneer at me and scorn me: As for the angelic Lady who deigns to look so low, I may say of her that her graciousness clothes what she looks at: To her the foot, the leg, the back: To her the very soul is bared: But she is a rarity upon eart

mi-socialistic ballads of the time, which were sung about the streets for the sharpness and

uigi to enter. He sent a glance behind him; he had evidently been drained of his sprightliness in a second; he moved in with the slackness of limb of a gibbeted figure. The door shut; the woman led him downstairs. He could not have danced or sung a song now for great pay. The smell of mouldi

rage that was furnished with implements of his cr

!" was the greeti

an ascent of stairs. It continued so that he would have sworn he was a shorter time going up the Motterone; then down, and along a passage; lower down, deep into corpse-climate; up again, up another enormous mountain; and once more down, as among rats and beetles, and down, as among faceless horrors, and down, where all things seemed prostrate and with a taste of brass. It was the poor fellow's nervous imagination, preternaturally excited. When the handkerchief was caught away, his jaw was sh

rolled out a

weating body, and must needs hav

San Carlo is a mash in a w

ch he drank, and after gave thanks t

ide of the Austrians. Now then, what have you to communicate to me? This time I let you come to my h

eep seas may have; while, on the other hand, his being subjected to a series of questions seemed at least to leave him with one leg on shore, for then he could lie discreetly, and according to the finger-posts, and only w

nd would have indicated. He was simply studying the character of his man. Luigi feared him; he was troubled chiefly because he was unaware of what Barto Rizzo wanted to know, and could not consequently tell what to bring to the market. The simplicity of the questions put to him was bewildering: he fell into the trap. Barto's eyes began to get terribly oblique. Jingling money in his pocket, he said:-"You saw Colonel Corte

rning of them, threw in a few additional facts, as, that he had been taken for a spy by the conspirators, and had heard one of the Englishmen mention the Signo

nd helplessness. Mad with alarm, he tried every spot for an aperture. Then he sat down on his haunches; he remembered hearing word of Barto Rizzo's rack:-certain methods peculiar to Barto Rizzo, by which he screwed matters out of his agents, and terrified them into fidelity. His personal dealings with Barto were of recent date; but Luigi knew him by repute: he knew that the shoemaking business was a mask. Barto had been a soldier, a schoolmaster: twice an exile; a conspirator since the day when the

leaden hour Bart

aid. "Drink before you spe

that ill-conceived divinity called Virtue, who lived in the open air, and desired men to dr

an, acquainted with the Signor Antonio-Pericle

ered promp

ina Vittoria sp

N

a w

N

ommunicati

t under her

cealed h

e a naughty

peak to th

t s

he see

a woman's eyes couldn't

calculatingly,

med, "has engaged to sing on the

that he apprehended a necessary stra

gnor Barto Rizzo? That's the night

a particu

f them!

e's a slate and a pencil. Expect me at the end of two hours, this time. Next time it will be fo

t, in cases where every fresh examination taught him more, they were continued, after regularly-lengthening intervals, that might extend from the sowing of seed to t

my inside with a spoon. May the devil seize you when you're sleeping! You shan't go: I'll tell you everything-everything. I can't tell you anything

rto Rizzo, who appeared to see something to weigh even in

" he repeated; "the English lady. That was the person

rto. "I am afraid we shall not part so early as I had suppose

ances could teach him that a promise to tell the truth was a more direct way of speaking. Indeed, the hitting of the truth would have seemed to hi

d accomplished his two objects: that of squeezing him, and that of subjecting his imagination. Luigi confessed (owing to a singular reco

her for it?

f heaven into her lap!" interject

one?" Bar

ainly

suspect you, for the

, without speaking to any of the English party, or revealing her features "keeping them beautifully hidden," Luigi said, with unaccountable enthusiasm-written a warning to them that they were to avoid Milan. The paper on which the warning had been written was found by the English when he was the only Italian on the height, lying thereto observe and note things in the service of Barto Rizzo. The writing was English, but when one of the English ladies-"who wore her hair like a planed shred of wood; like a torn vine; like a kite with two tails; like Luxury at the Banquet, ready to tumble over marble shoulders" (an illustration drawn probably from Luigi's study of some allegorical picture,-he was at a loss to describe the foreign female head-dress)-when this lady had read the writing, she exclaimed that it was the h

o-day," s

wofully, "You've drawn, beastly gaoler! a

homs above us," said Barto; "

so cool." Luigi groaned, and touched up along the sleeves

e scarcely glanced, and gave answer with a shrug of the shoulders as she retired. Luigi at the time was drinking. He rose; he was about to speak, but yawned instead. The woman's carelessl

llow, just for exercise, shoots a dagger a yard from his wrist and sticks you in the back? You serve me, and there's pay for you; brothers, doctors, nurses, friends,-a tight blanket if you fall from a housetop! and masses for your soul when your hour strikes. The treacherous cur lies rotting in a ditch! Do you conceive that when

rossed arms. "Stop. How did you know of a letter? I forgot-I have seen the English lady at her hotel. I was carrying the signorina's answer, when I thought 'Barto Rizzo cal

ingness of his own powerful intuition. He had guessed the case, or hardly even guessed it-merely stated it, to horrify Luigi. The letter was placed

he lamp, the green wax bubbled and unsnapped. Vittoria had wr

not ask to see me un

h. You will see me th

but I am miserable to

ll you where my reside

writes to me it will

will explain to him w

y this messenger. I ho

is month. Pray let me

y; I am tired, and fo

. I have you close ag

nvolved me alone, I wo

e. Do know that I am n

ctio

ili

went from the chamber and blew his voice i

ina Vittoria's warning to her friends on the Motterone. The English

ieved in, he could not afford to look untruth

d he read the wri

t loud, between puff

ent. I tell you, I must see her reply to this Lieutenant Pierson." Barto stuck his thumb and finger astride Luigi's shoulder and began rocking him gently, with a horrible meditative expression. "You will have to accomplish this, my Luigi. All fai

e of its insinuating gentleness, he answered, "The little g

ce of treachery:-do you see? You can't help slipping, but you can help jumping. Restrain yourself from jumping, that's all. If you are guilty of treachery, hurry at once, straight off, to the little

, till the voice dropped into its vast hollow, when Barto held him

nger-tips to the savage-browed beauty; pretended that he had got an armful, and that his heart was touched by the ecstasy; and sang again: "Oh, Barto, Barto! my boot is sadly worn. The toe is seen," etc., half-way down the stanzas. Without his knowing it, and before he had quitted the court, he