ciety, save of the parasitical class, which he
very much despised. He was not a happy man. Success at the Imperial Court
might have comforted him; but a remorseless sensitiveness of his nature
tripped his steps.

Bitter laughter rang throughout Lombardy when, in spite of his efforts to
save his daughter's husband, Giacomo Piaveni suffered death. No harder
blow had ever befallen the count: it was as good as a public proclamation
that he possessed small influence. To have bent the knee was not
afflicting to this nobleman's conscience: but it was an anguish to think
of having bent the knee for nothing.

Giacomo Piaveni was a noble Italian of the young blood, son of a General
loved by Eugene. In him the loss of Italy was deplorable. He perished by
treachery at the age of twenty-three years. So splendid was this youth in
appearance, of so sweet a manner with women, and altogether so-gentle and
gallant, that it was a widowhood for women to have known him: and at his
death the hearts of two women who had loved him in rivalry became bound
by a sacred tie of friendship. He, though not of distinguished birth, had
the choice of an almost royal alliance in the first blush of his manhood.
He refused his chance, pleading in excuse to Count Serabiglione, that he
was in love with that nobleman's daughter, Laura; which it flattered the
count to hear, but he had ever after a contempt for the young man's
discretion, and was observed to shrug, with the smooth sorrowfulness of
one who has been a prophet, on the day when Giacomo was shot. The larger
estates of the Piaveni family, then in Giacomo's hands, were in a famous
cheese-making district, producing a delicious cheese:--'white as
lambkins!' the count would ejaculate most dolefully; and in a rapture of
admiration, 'You would say, a marble quarry when you cut into it.' The
theme was afflicting, for all the estates of Giacomo were for the time
forfeit, and the pleasant agitation produced among his senses by the
mention of the cheese reminded him at the same instant that he had to
support a widow with two children. The Signora Piaveni lived in Milan,
and the count her father visited her twice during the summer months, and
wrote to her from his fitful Winter residences in various capital cities,
to report progress in the settled scheme for the recovery of Giacomo's
property, as well for his widow as for the heirs of his body. 'It is a
duty,' Count Serabiglione said emphatically. 'My daughter