I could never render subservient to the sway of one weaker or
lower than myself, as in marriage a wife is often bound to do. And many
as my wooers have been, I have never yet found one whom to serve would
not have appeared to me a bondage and degradation. It was only to-day
that I saw you ride into the town to which you have given back freedom
and honour. When I saw how modestly you bent your head beneath so great
a triumph, achieved in such early youth--showing neither vanity nor
scorn, but receiving like a messenger from God, the gratitude of those
whom you had delivered--I could not but say to myself, 'Why art thou no
longer young to deserve the love of this youth?' And when I saw the
crimson scar on your throat, I felt that I would go barefoot on a
pilgrimage to the Holy Sepulchre, if mine might be the bliss of only
once daring to press my lips to that sacred wound. And then when I came
home, knowing well what had befallen me, I picked up a flower from the
street--this one, see--just because it had been trodden under your
horse's hoof; and I meant to have it laid under my pillow when I should
be borne out hence to my last sleep. And now that I have told you this,
Attilio, repeat, if you have the heart, that this hand has coldly drawn
itself away from your grasp.'

"Then she held out her arms to her lover, who stood before her in
speechless ecstasy, like one doomed to death who had been reprieved at
the very edge of the scaffold. She drew down his head on her breast,
and kissed the wound for which her lips had yearned. Then freeing
herself once more from his embrace, she said, 'What I do, my friend, is
done with perfect deliberation and consciousness, and I shall never
repent it, although many might censure and condemn my conduct if they
knew of it. I give you the only jewel I possess, and which hitherto I
have held dearer than my very life. For look you, on the very spot on
which you stand, your future brother-in-law, Signor Lorenzaccio, stood
and vehemently besought me to be his, and he would lead me to Vicenza
as his wife. But what I denied to him, the enemy and oppressor of my
city--and I was fain to threaten him with my dagger (the mark of which
he bears on his right hand) before he desisted from his wild wooing--I
give to you as the saviour of my city, give it in token of your
triumph; and require from you in return no reward whatever, but that
you forget me when you stand at the altar to plight your faith to
a