he
could hardly frame the question, but she had the thought sufficiently
firmly to save her dignity; she was affected by very strong emotion
when Vittoria's singing ended, and nothing but the revival of the
recollection of her old contempt preserved her from an impetuous desire
to take the singer by the hand and have all clear between them; for they
were now of equal rank to tolerating eyes. "But she has no religious
warmth!" Anna reflected with a glow of satisfaction. The concert was
broken up by Laura Piaveni. She said out loud that the presence of Major
Weisspriess was intolerable to the Countess Alessandra. It happened
that Weisspriess entered the room while Laura sat studying the effect
produced by her countrywoman's voice on the thick eyelids of Austrian
Anna; and Laura, seeing their enemy ready to weep in acknowledgment of
their power, scorned the power which could never win freedom, and broke
up the sitting, citing the offence of the presence of Weisspriess for
a pretext. The incident threw Anna back upon her old vindictiveness.
It caused an unpleasant commotion in the duchess's saloon. Count
Serabiglione was present, and ran round to Weisspriess, apologizing for
his daughter's behaviour. "Do you think I can't deal with your women as
well as your men, you ass?" said Weisspriess, enraged by the scandal of
the scene. He was overheard by Count Karl Lenkenstein, who took him to
task sharply for his rough speech; but Anna supported her lover, and
they joined hands publicly. Anna went home prostrated with despair.
"What conscience is in me that I should wish one of my Kaiser's officers
killed?" she cried enigmatically to Lena. "But I must have freedom. Oh!
to be free. I am chained to my enemy, and God blesses that woman. He
makes her weep, but he blesses her, for her body is free, and mine,--the
thought of mine sets flames creeping up my limbs as if I were tied to
the stake. Losing a husband you love--what is that to taking a husband
you hate?" Still Lena could get no plain confession from her, for Anna
clung to self-justification, and felt it abandoning her, and her soul
fluttering in a black gulf when she opened her month to disburden
herself.

There came tidings of the bombardment of Brescia one of the historic
deeds of infamy. Many officers of the Imperial army perceived the shame
which it cast upon their colours, even in those intemperate hours,
and Karl Lenkenstein assumed the liberty of private friendship to go