aside these follies," she continued, gayly, as she
saw the ill-repressed rage of the pious woman, "tell us at once, my dear
aunt, all the tender things which the sight of our happiness inspires."

"I hope to do so, my amiable niece. First, I must congratulate this dear
prince, on having come so far to take charge, in all confidence, and
with his eyes shut, of you, my poor child, whom we were obliged to
confine as mad, in order to give a decent color to your excesses. You
remember the handsome lad, that we found in your apartment. You cannot
be so faithless, as already to have forgotten his name? He was a fine,
youth, and a poet--one Agricola Baudoin--and was discovered in a secret
place, attached to your bed-chamber. All Paris was amused with the
scandal--for you are not about to marry an unknown person, dear prince;
her name has been in every mouth."

At these unexpected and dreadful words, Adrienne, Djalma, and Mother
Bunch, though under the influence of different kinds of resentment,
remained for a moment mute with surprise; and the princess, judging it
no longer necessary to repress her infernal joy and triumphant hatred,
exclaimed, as she rose from her seat, with flushed cheek, and flashing
eyes, "Yes, I defy you to contradict me. Were we not forced to confine
you, on the plea of madness? And did we not find a workman (your lover)
concealed in your bedroom?"

On this horrible accusation, Djalma's golden complexion, transparent as
amber, became suddenly the color of lead; his eyes, fixed and staring
showed the white round the pupil--his upper lip, red as blood,
was curled in a kind of wild convulsion, which exposed to view the
firmly-set teeth--and his whole countenance became so frightfully
threatening and ferocious, that Mother Bunch shuddered with terror.
Carried away by the ardor of his blood, the young Oriental felt a sort
of dizzy, unreflecting, involuntary rage--a fiery commotion, like that
which makes the blood leap to the brave man's eyes and brain, when he
feels a blow upon his face. If, during that moment, rapid as the passage
of the lightning through the cloud, action could have taken the place of
thought, the princess and Adrienne, Mother Bunch and himself, would all
have been annihilated by an explosion as sudden and fatal as that of
the bursting of a mine. He would have killed the princess, because she
accused Adrienne of infamous deception he would have killed Adrienne,
because she could even be su