uth, sent to be an instrument of recognition between him and his child,
in the event of any sudden calamity befalling the latter. He groaned as he
gazed at its well-remembered emblems, for its identity was only too plain.

"Maso--Bartolo--Gaetano--for such, miserable boy, is thy real
appellation--thou canst not know how bitter is the pang that an unworthy
child brings to the parent, else would thy life have been different. Oh!
Gaetano! Gaetano! what a foundation art thou for a father's hopes! What a
subject for a father's love! I saw thee last a smiling innocent cherub, in
thy nurse's arms, and I find thee with a blighted sod, the pure fountain
of thy mind corrupted, a form sealed with the stamp of vice, and with
hands dyed in blood; prematurely old in body, and with a spirit that hath
already the hellish taint of the damned!

"Signore, you find me as the chances of a wild life have willed. The world
and I have been at loggerheads this many a year, and in trifling with its
laws, I take my revenge of its abuse--" warmly returned Il Maledetto, for
his spirit began to be aroused. "Thou bear'st hard upon me,
Doge--father--or what thou wilt--and I should be little worthy of my
lineage, did I not meet thy charges as they are made. Compare thine own
career with mine, and let it be proclaimed by sound of trumpet if thou
wilt, which hath most reason to be proud, and which to exult. Thou wert
reared in the hopes and honors of our name; thou passed thy youth in the
pursuit of arms according to thy fancy, and when tired of change, and
willing to narrow thy pleasures, thou looked about thee for a maiden to
become the mother of thy successor; thou turned a wishing eye on one
young, fair, and noble, but whose affections, as her faith, were solemnly,
irretrievably plighted to another."

The Doge shuddered and veiled his eye; but he eagerly interrupted Maso.

"Her kinsman was unworthy of her love," he cried; "he was an outcast, and
little better than thyself, unhappy boy, except in the chances of
condition."

"It matters not, Signore; God had not made you the arbiter of her fate. In
tempting her family by your greater riches, you crushed two hearts, and
destroyed the hopes of your fellow-creatures. In her was sacrificed an
angel, mild and pure as this fair creature who is now listening so
breathlessly to my words; in him a fierce untamed spirit, that had only
the greater need of management, since it was as likely to go wrong as
righ