buried the abbess in great state, with
catafalque and canopy, with hundreds of wax candles and endless funeral
singing. They buried also another body with less magnificence, but with
more pomp than would have been bestowed upon any of the other sisters,
and not long afterwards a marble tablet in the wall of the church set
forth in short good Latin sentences, how the Sister Maria Addolorata, of
many virtues, had been burned to death in her bed on the eve of the
feast of Saint Luke the Evangelist, and all good Christians were
enjoined to pray for her soul--which indeed was in need of their
prayers.

Stefanone returned from Rome, but it was a sad home-coming when he
found that his daughter was gone, and unconsciously he repeated the very
words she had last spoken when she was dying in Dalrymple's room all
alone.

"An evil death on you and all your house!" he said, shaking his fist at
the door of the room.

And Stefanone swore within himself solemnly that the Englishman should
pay the price. And he and his paid it in full, and more also, after
years had passed, even to generations then unborn.

This is the first act, as it were, of all the story, and between this
one and the beginning of the next a few years must pass quickly, if not
altogether in silence.

PART II.

_GLORIA DALRYMPLE._

CHAPTER XVII.

IN the year 1861 Donna Francesca Campodonico was already a widow. Her
husband, Don Girolamo Campodonico, had died within two years of their
marriage, which had been one of interest and convenience so far as he
had been concerned, for Donna Francesca was rich, whereas he had been
but a younger son and poor. His elder brother was the Duca di Norba, the
father of another Girolamo, who succeeded him many years later, of
Gianforte Campodonico, and of the beautiful Bianca, in whose short, sad
life Pietro Ghisleri afterwards held so large a part. But of these
latter persons, some were then not yet born, and others were in their
infancy, so that they play no part in this portion of the present
history.

Donna Francesca was of the great Braccio family, the last of a
collateral branch. She had inherited a very considerable estate, which,
if she had no descendants, was to revert to the Princes of Gerano. She
had married Don Girolamo in obedience to her guardians' advice, but not
at all against her will, and she had become deeply attached to him
during the short two years of their married life. He had never b