Agnes, or, Beauty and Pleasure — page 258: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

«/ Ce ee eS So 8. Ne, ee r | ie oon | | | —_— o> a7.) rrr ae RS eet wm eee — -_ 7 o er (8 eee oO eo Se eer OO PR ON eT ee ee ow = J ue » mete ( ae "ae" & Ae con be eae J és i ~ % ~~ \ J 259 AGS28; OS) BEAUrY LOND PEmast hn, a the Count in a hoarse voice, and his lips quivered| “Ah! that question reminds me of what my wardly conyulsing him. how I must be firm and self-possessed throughous All of a sudden a remarkable degree of cool- | this terrible ordeal! Go, my son, under the cover — ness and self-possession succeeded the terror and of the darkness of this eyening to the British — consternation which but a moment back had paralysed the energies of Silvio, He saw that he De Vere—entice him hither on some pretext—tell was standing upon the edge of a precipice, and | him that you are a messenger from Ginevra—tell that if he meant to save himself he must be) him anything you think fit!—but _ aghs bring armed with all possible calmness, fortitude, and | him hither, that I may immolate him to my wariness. Thus while now maintaining a pertect | | vengeance! Do this—and afterwards I will tell command over his features, be threw into them an | you how the guilty Gineyra shall be dealt expression of indignation and astonishment; and | with!” in a kindred tone he ejaculated, “Is this true, | “I go, father!” responded the young Viscount ! father ?—bave you the proofs? have you acquired | and enveloping himeelf in his cloak, he was moving the certainty e towards the door, when as if bethinking hit “Phere is no possibility of doubt, Silvio!” in- | of something, he turned and said, “ Perhaps terrupted the Count. “Oh! it is a shocking not find him at the Embassy this evening | thing for a husband to have to speak of the share | haps I may have to wait until the morrow? nd of his wife! Yet it must be!—and I must| you know, my dear father, that it is dangerous triumph over this weakness, for energy is now re- | for me to walk about in the daylight-———” quired at my bands! [I tell you, Silvio, that she} « True, my dear son!” exclaimed the Count: who bears the name of the Countess of Camerino | “by all means use every possible precaution! If has dishonoured that name! From -her own lips, you return not again to-night, I shall understand did I ere now——” that you have failed to fall” in with the guilty De “ Ah! then you have seen her f” guickly ejacu-| Vere. Then let it be for to-morrow night—— lated Silvio, for an instant thrown off his guard: | though yengeance is terribly impatient— but the next moment regaining his self-possession,| “Yet must you restrain this imapatience some- he added, “I thought I understood differently | what, father,” rejoined Silvio; “for the safety of from the Marquis of Ortona?” | both of us requires it! Leave everything to me “I was in the opposite room,” responded the | —and if you see me not again to-night, rest Count,—“it is tenanted by faithful friends—a| assured that to-morrow evening I shall be here footstep was heard approaching—and I hid myself. | and that your vengeance shall be gratified !” Ab! little thought I who was about to enter!| Having thus spoken, the Viscount Silyio Came- It was Ginevra! Yes, Silvio—the proof of her | rino quitted the house, closely muffled in his shame is there—the cbild that she has borne ” | mantle, and entering the hackney-eoach which had “The child?” echoed Silvio, unable to repress a | brought him thither, he returned to his own lodg« shudder; for he felt as if the ground were slip- | ings in a state of mind that can perhaps be better ping away from his feet on the edge of the preci- | conceived than described. pice where he was standing, “Yes, the child,” aban the Count of Came- -_~ rino, witb ghastly face, corrugating brows, and clenching hands,—“ the child wbich she has borne to her paramour—a young Jnclishman 4: “Ab! an Englishman ?” ejaculated Silvio, “But who is he, father P” “Yes —the child is therei” continued the CHAPTER XLIU. THE EUINS OF SAINT NICHOLAS, THE reader will remember the scene at the cone Count, pursuing the Strain of his own dreadful | fessional which occurred about ten days previous thoughts; “the evidence of her guilt—the proof| to the date of which we are now writing. On of her frailty!—and I who for the last ten or | that occasion Silvio was stricken with dismay on twelve days have constantly seen the babe—have | learning that Ginevra intended to confide her even fondled it! O God! it is enough to drive | fault to Father Faleonara: but finding that she one mad!” was resolutely bent on executing her purpose, he © And her child is there ?” said Silvio: “and she | could not refuse to proceed to the vestiary and came to see it? and you heard her speak, father ?” deliver to that priest the message with which she “Yes,” answered the Count, in a gloomy had charged him. But on entering the vestiary, sombre tone: “I heard her speak—I heard her| he found no one there, Then i6 was that a confess her shame—I heard her make arrange. |sudden idea struck him. Hastily assuming a ments with those people for the care of her child! | cowl which was hanging to a peg in the vestiary, Oh, how was it that I restrained myself from | he muffled himself in that Dominican garb, and he rushing forth from wy hiding-place, stretching the | proceeded to the confessional. He had now vile woman dead at my feet, and throttling the | several objects in view. He wished to ascertain child as one would strangle a loathsome reptile P | | where the child had been placed; for he dreaded All the lightnings of heaven appeared to be cir- | lest the instinct of maternal fondness should lead culating in my veins and yet I exercised somé | Ginevra into indiscretions and imprudences with power over myself % regard to that infant, which would tend to the “Alas, my poor father! all this is very, very | betrayal of the terrible secret and bring about a shocking !” said Silvio, affecting a tone of the|complete exposure. It was therefore bis purpose deepest sympatay. “ But what would you have | to make avay with that child, and thus destroy me do?” the proof of Ginevra’s frailty, He was also Comicbooks.con , 4s as he strove to keep back the sob that was in-|duty is—of what my vengeance must be—ard } Embassy—inquire for the junior attaché Charles |