hat were swung to and fro and
tossed in the air by the merry populace, startled my spirited horses
frequently, and caused them to leap and prance to a somewhat dangerous
extent, thus attracting more than the customary attention to my
equipage. As it drew up at last at the door of the chapel, I was
surprised to see what a number of spectators had collected there. There
was a positive crowd of loungers, beggars, children, and middle-class
persons of all sorts, who beheld my arrival with the utmost interest
and excitement.

In accordance with my instructions a rich crimson carpet had been laid
down from the very edge of the pavement right into the church as far as
the altar; a silken awning had also been erected, under which bloomed a
miniature avenue of palms and tropical flowers. All eyes were turned
upon me curiously as I stepped from my carriage and entered the chapel,
side by side with the duke, and murmurs of my vast wealth and
generosity were audibly whispered as I passed along. One old crone,
hideously ugly, but with large, dark piercing eyes, the fading lamps of
a lost beauty, chuckled and mumbled as she craned her skinny throat
forward to observe me more closely. "Ay, ay! The saints know he need be
rich and generous--pover'uomo to fill HER mouth. A little red cruel
mouth always open, that swallows money like macaroni, and laughs at the
suffering poor! Ah! that is bad, bad! He need be rich to satisfy HER!"

The Duke di Marina caught these words and glanced quickly at me, but I
affected not to have heard. Inside the chapel there were a great number
of people, but my own invited guests, not numbering more than twenty or
thirty, were seated in the space apportioned to them near the altar,
which was divided from the mere sight-seers by means of a silken rope
that crossed the aisle. I exchanged greetings with most of these
persons, and in return received their congratulations; then I walked
with a firm deliberate step up to the high altar and there waited. The
magnificent paintings on the wall round me seemed endowed with
mysterious life--the grand heads of saints and martyrs were turned upon
me as though they demanded--"MUST thou do this thing? Hast thou no
forgiveness?"

And ever my stern answer, "Nay; if hereafter I am tortured in eternal
flame for all ages, yet now--now while I live, I will be avenged!"

A bleeding Christ suspended on His cross gazed at me reproachfully with
long-enduring eyes of dreadful angui