your blessing. Bless Ghita once, that I may hear the sound
of a parent's benediction."

"Bless thee!--bless thee, daughter!" exclaimed the admiral, bending over
the weeping girl to do the act she solicited, and then raising her to
his arms and embracing her tenderly; "this _must_ be my child--I feel
that she is no other."

"Eccellenza," said Carlo, "she is the daughter of your son, Don
Francesco, and of my sister, Ghita Giuntotardi, born in lawful wedlock.
I would not deceive any--least of all a dying man."

"I have no estate to bequeathe--no honors to transmit--no name to boast
of. Better the offspring of the lazzaroni than a child of Francesco
Caraccioli, at this moment."

"Grandfather, we think not of this--care not for this. I have come only
to ask the blessing you have bestowed, and to offer the prayers of
believers, though we are so lowly. More than this we ask not--wish
not--seek not. Our poverty is familiar to us, and we heed it not. Riches
would but distress us, and we care not for them."

"I remember, holy father, that one great reason of displeasure at my
son's marriage was distrust of the motive of the family which received
him; yet here have these honest people suffered me to live on unmolested
in prosperity, while they now first claim the affinity in my disgrace
and ignominy! I have not been accustomed to meet with wishes and hearts
like these!"

"You did not know us, grandfather," said Ghita simply, her face nearly
buried in the old man's bosom. "We have long prayed for you, and
reverenced you, and thought of you as a parent whose face was turned
from us in anger; but we never sought your gold and honors."

"Gold and honors!" repeated the admiral, gently placing his
grand-daughter in a chair. "These are things of the past for me. My
estates are sequestered--my name disgraced; and, an hour hence, I shall
have suffered an ignominious death. No selfish views _can_ have brought
these good people, father, to claim affinity with me at a moment
like this."

"It comes from the goodness of God, son. By letting you feel the
consolation of this filial love, and by awakening in your own bosom the
spark of parental affection, he foreshadows the fruits of his own mercy
and tenderness to the erring but penitent. Acknowledge his bounty in
your soul; it may bring a blessing on your last moment."

"Holy priest, I hope I do. But what says this?--"

Don Francesco took a note from the hand of a servant and read i