n. With the absence of the Senator that
spot had comparatively been deserted. Music and the dance attracted the
maskers to another quarter of the wide space. And Irene now approaching,
beheld the moonlight fall over the statue, and a solitary figure leaning
against the pedestal. She paused, the figure approached, and again she
heard the voice of her early love.

"Oh, Irene! recognised even in this disguise," said Adrian, seizing her
trembling hand; "have I lived to gaze again upon that form--to touch
this hand? Did not these eyes behold thee lifeless in that fearful
vault, which I shudder to recall? By what miracle wert thou raised
again? By what means did Heaven spare to this earth one that it seemed
already to have placed amongst its angels?"

"Was this, indeed, thy belief?" said Irene, falteringly, but with an
accent eloquent of joy. "Thou didst not then willingly desert me? Unjust
that I was, I wronged thy noble nature, and deemed that my brother's
fall, my humble lineage, thy brilliant fate, had made thee renounce
Irene."

"Unjust indeed!" answered the lover. "But surely I saw thee amongst the
dead!--thy cloak, with the silver stars--who else wore the arms of the
Roman Tribune?"

"Was it but the cloak then, which, dropped in the streets, was probably
assumed by some more ill-fated victim; was it that sight alone, that
made thee so soon despair? Ah! Adrian," continued Irene, tenderly, but
with reproach; "not even when I saw thee seemingly lifeless on the
couch by which I had watched three days and nights, not even then did I
despair!"

"What, then, my vision did not deceive me! It was you who watched by my
bed in that grim hour, whose love guarded, whose care preserved me! And
I, wretch that I was!--"

"Nay," answered Irene, "your thought was natural. Heaven seemed to endow
me with superhuman strength, whilst I was necessary to thee. But judge
of my dismay. I left thee to seek the good friar who attended thee as
thy leech; I returned, and found thee not. Heart-sick and terrified, I
searched the desolate city in vain. Strong as I was while hope supported
me, I sunk beneath fear.--And my brother found me senseless, and
stretched on the ground, by the church of St. Mark."

"The church of St. Mark!--so foretold his dream!"

"He had told me he had met thee; we searched for thee in vain; at length
we heard that thou hadst left the city, and--and--I rejoiced, Adrian,
but I repined!"

For some minutes the young