erness, "asks vengeance of God and
of me, thy miserable father; and now I shall deal with thee alone.
Certainly it is a heinous crime for a father to kill his son, but it
would be a still more grievous sin to spare the life of a parricide,
lest he went on to exterminate his family, and lay their name in the
dirt, to be execrated of all men. I have now resolved what to do, for I
would far rather live in history as a pitiless father than as an unjust
Sovereign."

The Duchess, judging that Cosimo actually intended to slay his son, and
knowing how fruitless any efforts of hers would be to avert such a
terrible calamity, fell upon her knees and prayed aloud to Heaven to
save the poor, young boy, and spare her own broken heart. Shutting her
eyes, and covering her ears, she awaited, more dead than alive, the fall
of that hand, within which was convulsively grasped a flashing poignard!

Cosimo once more prayed most earnestly to God to approve the justice of
his deed, to pardon him for so executing the Divine wrath, and for peace
for the souls of his young sons. Then, bending towards the unconscious
Garzia, he exclaimed, "I will have no Cain in my family," and, at the
same moment, he plunged his weapon into the heart of his boy.

With a last despairing shriek Garzia fell away, crying, as he expired,
the one word "Mother!"

The Duchess also lay upon the grass, still as death; indeed, her heart
had stopped its beat when Cosimo raised her, and bid her sternly to act
the woman. She was speechless and demented, and at the sight of her dear
son's crimson blood colouring the fresh verdure where he had fallen,
she lost her reason, and her cries and shrieks resounded through the
forest.

From all sides courtiers and huntsmen appeared upon the scene. The Duke
silently waved them away, and, beckoning four of the most trusty of his
retainers, he bade them pick up the dead body of the young prince and
bear it after him, whilst he commanded the lacqueys to carry back the
Duchess in her sedan-chair to the Castle.

Asking which way the bearers of the murdered Giovanni had taken, he
ordered his own cortege to follow on to Livorno. Arrived at the palace,
the corpses of the two unfortunate young princes were arranged for
burial. Upon baring Don Garzia's body, a fresh wound was discovered _in
his back_, but whether by the hand of Don Giovanni no one ever knew.
This fact, however, was reported to the Duke and furnished him with a
satisfactory