Beautiful Rienzi; or, The secret vendetta — page 244: what you’re looking at

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

BEAUTIFUL RIENZI. 239 my history?’ Then she eagerly poured into my ears a tale which slowly froze meinto despair. Oh, Iva, what anguish that was for the bride of Victor Joselyn and the happy child of the Rienzis! She had been a young lady of high birth in Florence, and was betrothed to my father. I blame him not to you, his real daughter; but he was false, cruel, heart- less to the one who trusted him. He left her to her remorse. She fled from her friends, and in mad recklessness went on the stage. Her genius and beauty captivated an English gentleman of fortune, who married her. This was Victor Joselyn’s sire.. She lived in England five years with her husband, during which time she gave birth to three chil- dren. ‘‘She was intensely wretched; the quiet English life did not suit her ardent temperament; her husband did not un- derstand her. She had never risen above the injury she had received from Guiseppe Rienzi; she brooded on revenge, and only lived to execute it. She became unsettled; she must find her enemy, or she would die. “‘QOn flying from her friends in Florence, she had lost sight of him; now she determined to find him out if he still lived. She began to travel about in her husband’s ab- sence, with this one idea; she visited Florence in vain; no one could tell where Guiseppe Rienzi had gone; she visited Padua, Rome, Naples, but without success. At last some one who had been traveling through the United States mentioned a famous architect that he had met in Washing- ton. ‘This was Guiseppe Rienzi. She watched her oppor- tunity and went alone to Washington, firmly intending to revenge herself now. She soon found her victim; he was just married to a beautiful American lady, and she saw them come out of their handsome house, and proceed to enter the carriage which was to bear them away on their wedding tour. This sight maddened the wretched conspirator; she dragged the bridegroom back from the carriage door, and aimed at him a frantic blow on the breast with a poisoned dagger. It quivered to pieces, leaving the hilt in her hand, and her intended victim seized her hands, and looked fixedly at her. a << Ts this Gemma Lancinetto?’ cried the cruel man who had wrecked ber happiness; ‘do I see the beauteous Gemma in this guise? Whatif I were to deliver you to that con- stable that I see watching us?’ CORNUCG OOO S (©)