case," interrupted Don Juan, "if Cornelia and her child were
now to appear, you would not refuse to admit that the first is your
wife, and the second your son?"

"Certainly not," replied the duke; "for if I value myself on being a
gentleman, still more highly do I prize the title of Christian.
Cornelia, besides, is one who well deserves to be mistress of a kingdom.
Let her but come, and whether my mother live or die, the world shall
know that I maintain my faith, and that my word, given in private, shall
be publicly redeemed."

"And what you have now said to me you are willing to repeat to your
brother, Signor Lorenzo?" inquired Don Juan.

"My only regret is," exclaimed the duke, "that he has not long before
been acquainted with the truth."

Hearing this, Don Juan made sign to Lorenzo that he should join them,
which he did, alighting from his horse and proceeding towards the place
where his friends stood, but far from hoping for the good news that
awaited him.

The duke advanced to receive him with open arms, and the first word he
uttered was to call him brother. Lorenzo scarcely knew how to reply to a
reception so courteous and a salutation so affectionate. He stood
amazed, and before he could utter a word, Don Juan said to him, "The
duke, Signor Lorenzo, is but too happy to admit his affection for your
sister, the Lady Cornelia; and, at the same time, he assures you, that
she is his legitimate consort. This, as he now says it to you, he will
affirm publicly before all the world, when the moment for doing so has
arrived. He confesses, moreover, that he did propose to remove her from
the house of her cousin some nights since, intending to take her to
Ferrara, there to await the proper time for their public espousals,
which he has only delayed for just causes, which he has declared to me.
He describes the conflict he had to maintain against yourself; and adds,
that when he went to seek Cornelia, he found only her waiting-woman,
Sulpicia, who is the woman you see yonder: from her he has learned that
her lady had just given birth to a son, whom she entrusted to a servant
of the duke, and then left the house in terror, because she feared that
you, Signor Lorenzo, had been made aware of her secret marriage: the
lady hoped, moreover, to find the duke awaiting her in the street. But
it seems that Sulpicia did not give the babe to Fabio, but to some other
person instead of him, and the child does not appear, neither is th