s glared in his
eyeless sockets. Blackened in terrible convulsions,
Wolfstein expired; over him had the power of hell no
influence. Yes, endless existence is thine, Ginotti--a
dateless and hopeless eternity of horror."

Interspersed with this somewhat inconsequent story are the
adventures of Eloise, who is first introduced on her return home,
disconsolate, to a ruined abbey. We are given to understand that
the story is to unfold the misfortunes which have led to her
downfall, but she is happily married ere the close. She
accompanies her dying mother on a journey, as Emily in _The
Mysteries of Udolpho_ accompanied her father, and meets a
mysterious stranger, Nempere, at a lonely house, where they take
refuge. Nempere proves to be a less estimable character than
Valancourt, who fell to Emily's lot in similar circumstances. He
sells her to an English noble, Mountfort, at whose house she
meets Fitzeustace, who, like Vivaldi in _The Italian_, overhears
her confession of love for himself. Nempere is killed in a duel
by Mountfort. At the close, Shelley states abruptly that Nempere
is Ginotti, and Eloise is Wolfstein's sister. In springing a
secret upon us suddenly on the last page, Shelley was probably
emulating Lewis's _Bravo of Venice_; but the conclusion, which is
intended to forge a connecting link between the tales, is
unsatisfying. It is not surprising that the publisher, Stockdale,
demanded some further elucidation of the mystery. Ginotti,
apparently, dies twice, and Shelley's letters fail to solve the
problem. He wrote to Stockdale: "Ginotti, as you will see, did
_not_ die by Wolfstein's hand, but by the influence of that
natural magic, which, when the secret was imparted to the latter,
destroyed him."[97] A few days later he wrote again, evidently in
reply to further questions: "On a re-examination you will
perceive that Mountfort physically did kill Ginotti, which must
appear from the latter's paleness." The truth seems to be that
Shelley was weary of his puppets, and had no desire to extricate
them from the tangle in which they were involved, though he was
impatient to see _St. Irvyne_ in print, and spoke hopefully of
its "selling mechanically to the circulating libraries."

Shelley took advantage of the privilege of writers of romance to
palm off on the public some of his earliest efforts at
versification. These poems, distributed impartially among the
various characters, are introduced wit