not arrived, I might have taken those albricias you speak of,"
replied Don Juan; "but now they are yours, Don Antonio, for I am certain
that the duke and Signor Lorenzo will give them to you most joyfully."
The duke and Lorenzo hearing of Cornelia being found, and of albricias,
inquired the meaning of those words.
"What can it be," replied Don Antonio, "if not that I also design to
become one of the personages in this happily terminating drama, being he
who is to demand the albricias for the discovery of the Lady Cornelia
and her son, who are both in my house." He then at once related to the
brothers, point by point, what has been already told, intelligence which
gave the duke and Lorenzo so much pleasure, that each embraced one of
the friends with all his heart, Lorenzo throwing himself into the arms
of Don Juan, and the duke into those of Don Antonio--the latter
promising his whole dukedom for albricias, and Lorenzo his life, soul,
and estates. They then called the woman who had given the child to Don
Juan, and she having perceived her master, Lorenzo Bentivoglio, came
forward, trembling. Being asked if she could recognise the man to whom
she had given the infant, she replied that she could not; but that when
she had asked if he were Fabio, he had answered "yes," and that she had
entrusted the babe to his care in the faith of that reply.
"All this is true," returned Don Juan; "and you furthermore bade me
deposit the child in a place of security, and instantly return."
"I did so," replied the waiting-woman, weeping. But the duke exclaimed,
"We will have no more tears; all is gladness and joy. I will not now
enter Ferrara, but return at once to Bologna; for this happiness is but
in shadow until made perfect by the sight of Cornelia herself." Then,
without more words, the whole company wheeled round, and took their way
to Bologna.
Don Antonio now rode forward to prepare the Lady Cornelia, lest the
sudden appearance of her brother and the duke might cause too violent a
revulsion; but not finding her as he expected, and the pages being
unable to give him any intelligence respecting her, he suddenly found
himself the saddest and most embarrassed man in the world. Learning that
the gouvernante had departed, he was not long in conjecturing that the
lady had disappeared by her means. The pages informed him that the
housekeeper had gone on the same day with himself and Don Juan, but as
to that Lady Cornelia, respecting
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