Marianna ran to support her. Overcome with agitation and loss of blood,
she had fainted, and taking advantage of the opportunity, they placed
her on a couch, and while they applied restoratives, they bathed the
wound, and tried to staunch the blood. She gave signs at length of
life; but hers was no ordinary faint, and for hours did she continue in
that state, wavering on the verge of death. As Ada herself, fevered and
weary, sat by the side of her friend, she felt almost equally overcome
with alarm and anxiety for the fate of her lover. What could have
become of him? Had Paolo proved treacherous, and, afraid of his
recovery, spirited him away, and cast him over the cliffs? or was she
wronging the young Italian, and had he not, mistrusting the mercy of the
pirate chief, concealed him in some secret place till his anger had worn
off? This she owned to herself was the most probable cause; but love,
even on ordinary occasions, is full of doubt and fears, much more so
then had she reason for dread under the circumstances in which he was
placed. While she believed Zappa was ignorant of who he was, she
trusted he was in no other danger than that resulting from his wound;
but now that he was discovered, after the dreadful exhibition she had
witnessed of the pirate's temper, she trembled at what might be his
fate. Why had she quitted him? she thought. Why had she not boldly
avowed who he was, and her love for him, and dared the pirate to injure
him? She had seen the successful effects Nina had produced by such
behaviour on the daring outlaw--why had she not acted in the same
manner? She bitterly accused herself of having deserted him, of having
trusted him to strangers, and, more than all, of being the cause of his
death. This thought gave her the most poignant grief, and she prayed
that if Heaven had ordained that he must thus die, she might be spared
the misery of knowing it. Daylight surprised her still sitting by the
couch whereon lay the yet more unhappy Nina.

"And yet, compared to that poor girl's fate, mine is blessed indeed,"
she thought, as she, watched those pallid features, on which an
expression of acute pain still rested. "She staked all for love, and
has found the idol she madly worshipped turned into a demon, who she
feels will destroy her. She, too, has an accusing conscience to keep
happiness at a distance. She remembers that she burst asunder the bonds
of duty, that she caused the death of a fon