Oh, horror!" exclaimed Caneri, in chilled amazement.

"It was Anselma," gloomily repeated Bermudo; "my love, my only happiness
in this accursed world. She had already been dead sometime. Her slender
garments were rent, her long tresses torn and stained with blood, and
her delicate limbs broken and mangled with the fall. Alas! her beautiful
features were now scarcely discernible; the raven had plucked at those
eyes that once beamed with affection, and the hungry vulture had
lacerated the pure heart, that hallowed shrine of innocence and love and
virtue. I did not weep, nor did I utter a single groan; no sign of
grief escaped me. No,--the springs of my heart were instantaneously
frozen, and with horrified stupor I gazed on the ghastly spectacle.
Suddenly my whole frame underwent a revolution. I felt a dreadful
pressure on my heart,--a ball of fire seemed rolling in my brain. It was
torture intense; the pangs of frenzied agony came over me, and for a
time I knew not what I did; but the tempest of passion gradually
subsided, and my soul became fixed in that settled and sombre mood,
which has been to me as a second nature since that dreadful event.

"The sad remains of the lovely Anselma were consigned to the kindred
earth, and I hastened to learn the cause of the appalling fate, which my
boding heart already but too faithfully foretold. I hurried to the
mansion of Gomez Arias; the truth was soon revealed, but I felt no
surprise--I was prepared for the dire intelligence. I reproached Gomez
Arias in the most bitter and provoking terms; he answered me with the
laugh of contempt. I laid my hand on my sword--he smote me on the face.
Furiously I drew the mortal weapon, but was soon overpowered and
disarmed by the numerous attendants of my foe. I applied for
redress--for justice. I denounced my enemy as the murderer of Anselma.
It was all in vain; justice affected to be deaf to my earnest and
reiterated appeal. Alas! what redress could I obtain against so powerful
an enemy? His constant good fortune had raised him in the estimation of
the court; he was brave, victorious in various encounters against the
Moors in the war of Granada. His services were rewarded; his crimes
overlooked; and I with the sting of shame and revenge and disappointment
rankling in my heart, determined to extort with my own hands that
redress which the justice of my country had denied me. I made a world to
myself in the solitude of my now desolate feelings. S