t. Before your son was born, this unhappy rival, poor in hopes as in
wealth, had become desperate; and the mother of your child sank a victim
to her ceaseless regrets, at her own want of faith as much as for his
follies."

"Thy mother was deluded, Gaetano; she never knew the real qualities of
her cousin, or a soul like hers would have lothed the wretch."

"Signore, it matters not," continued Il Maledetto, with a ruthless
perseverance of intention, and a coolness of manner that would seem to
merit the description which had just been given his spirit, that of
possessing a hellish taint; "she loved him with a woman's heart; and with
a woman's ingenuity and confidence, she ascribed his fall to despair for
her loss."

"Oh, Melchior! Melchior! this is fearfully true!" groaned the Doge.

"It is so true, Signore, that it should be written on my mother's tomb. We
are children of a fiery climate; the passions burn in our Italy like the
hot sun that glows there. When despair drove the disappointed lover to
acts that rendered him an outlaw, the passage to revenge was short. Your
child was stolen, hid from your view, and cast upon the world under
circumstances that left little doubt of his living in bitterness, and
dying under the contempt, if not the curses, of his fellows. All this,
Signor Grimaldi, is the fruit of your own errors. Had you respected the
affections of an innocent girl, the sad consequences to yourself and me
might have been avoided."

"Is this man's history to be believed, Gaetano?" demanded the baron, who
had more than once betrayed a wish to check the rude tongue of the
speaker.

"I do not--I cannot deny it; I never saw my own conduct in this criminal
light before, and yet now it all seems frightfully true!"

Il Maledetto laughed. Those around him thought his untimely merriment
resembled the mockery of a devil.

"This is the manner in which men continue to sin, while they lay claim to
the merit of innocence!" he added. "Let the great of the earth give but
half the care to prevent, that they show to punish, offences against
themselves, and what is now called justice will no longer be a
stalking-horse to enable a few to live at the cost of the rest. As for me,
I am proof of what noble blood and illustrious ancestry can do for
themselves! Stolen when a child, Nature has had fair play in my
temperament, which I own is more disposed to wild adventure and manly
risks than to the pleasures of marble halls. Nobl