ade Cornelia
approach to receive the duke. The lady obeyed; her emotion giving so
rich a colour to her face that the beauty she displayed seemed something
more than human. The duke, on seeing her, remained as if struck by a
thunderbolt, while she, throwing herself at his feet, sought to kiss
them. The duke said not a word, but gave the infant to the priest, and
hurried out of the apartment.

Shocked at this, Cornelia said to the priest, "Alas, dear father, have I
terrified the duke with the sight of my face? am I become hateful to
him? Has he forgot the ties by which he has bound himself to me? Will he
not speak one word to me? Was his child such a burden to him that he has
thus rejected him from his arm's?"

To all these questions the good priest could give no reply, for he too
was utterly confounded by the duke's hasty departure, which seemed more
like a flight than anything else.

Meanwhile Alfonso had but gone out to summon Fabio. "Ride Fabio, my
friend," he cried, "ride for your life to Bologna, and tell Lorenzo
Bentivoglio that he must come with all speed to this place; let him
make no excuse, and bid him bring with him the two Spanish gentlemen,
Don Juan de Gamboa and Don Antonio de Isunza. Return instantly, Fabio,
but not without them, for it concerns my life to see them here."

Fabio required no further pressing, but instantly carried his master's
commands into effect. The duke returned at once to Cornelia, caught her
in his arms, mingled his tears with hers, and kissed her a thousand
times; and long did the fond pair remain thus silently locked in each
other's embrace, both speechless from excess of joy. The nurse of the
infant and the dame, who proclaimed herself a Crivella, beheld all this
from the door of the adjoining apartment, and fell into such ecstasies
of delight that they knocked their heads against the wall, and seemed
all at once to have gone out of their wits. The priest bestowed a
thousand kisses on the infant, whom he held on one arm, while with his
right hand he showered no end of benedictions on the noble pair. At
length his reverence's housekeeper, who had been occupied with her
culinary preparations, and knew nothing of what had occurred, entered to
notify to her master that dinner was on the table, and so put an end to
this scene of rapture.

The duke then took his babe from the arms of the priest, and kept it in
his own during the repast, which was more remarkable for neatness and
go