Agnes, or, Beauty and Pleasure — page 38: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

mm wr ee 80 deeply afflicted at his tragical end; but she veiled the extreme anguish of her mind, for fear lest she should betray the love that she bore for the de- ceased youth, and which she had always been the more anxious to conceal as she was no stranger to the fact that her mistress was wont to bestow her favours on him. There was something peculiar in Giulio’s manner and conduct at the time when I | was introduced to your chamber at the villa; and Lisetta could not comprehend the motives from | which Giulio seemed to be acting a singular part. She questioned him: but he would not give her any satisfactory answer : he was in a hurry to de- part on horseback—he went away—and Lisetta never more beheld him alive. There was thus a mystery connected with the circumstances pre- ceeding the youth’s death, which rendered the trgedy itself all the more mysterious in the esti- mation of Lisetta. She was bewildering her mind | with painful conjectures, when accident brought | her to the commencement of a clue which filled Aer with the gravest and darkest suspicions, and | ‘nduced her to leave the service of the Marchioness. Ab ! by the bye, now that I bethink me,” ejacu- | lated Marcellin, ‘‘ there were certain objects which | I had with me in the picture-gallery - “A pistol and a suit of clothes ?”’ asked Ci- prina quickly. “The same. Where are they?”—and it was with feverish anxiety that Edgar put the ques- tion. “ Tranquillize yourself,’ said Ciprina; “ for I now perceive that there must be some importance attaching itself to those objects! ‘They are sa —I took possession of them they are here!” “That pistol,” said Edgar,—“it is the weapon with which the unfortunate Giulio Paoli was slain ! —and that male costume belongs to the Mar chioness herself!” “And how know you,’ demanded Ciprina, “that the beautifully chased weapon was used for so horrible a purpose P” ‘Listen to the narrative of what happened to Lisetta,” rejoined Marcellin; ‘and you will be- gin to see far more clearly into the depths of all these mysteries, 1 have already said that Lisetta returned to the town-mansion from the villa on the day following the assassination. In the even. ing she was engaged in the arrangement of her mistress’s boudoir, toilet-chamber, and bed-room ; and it happened that the maid whose turn if was to assist in those duties, was indisposed or else ab- sent—and Lisetta preferred to be alone with her own thoughts rather than to invoke the aid of an- other dependant. She had the key of the ward- robe; she bethought herself of seeing whether all the dresses were in proper order; and in the course of this proceeding, she happened to open a drawer in which there was a pistol-case. She knew that the Marchioness possessed this pistol- case; for it had belonged to her deceased husband, who had highly prized it, While arranging seme articles of dress that were in the samo drawer, she . Was surprised to find that there was a quantity of black powder scattered amongst those articles. She brought the lamp nearer to see what could be the eause,—when to her sudden alarm she noticed that there was a powder-flask tho top of which had by some meaus come off and the contents had partially poured out Lisetta hastily put the lamp AGNES; OR, BEAUTY ANP PLEASURE. to a distance : a falling spark would have caused an explosion, either killing her, or at least dis- figuring her for life. A further examination showed that the pistol-case itself had been re- cently opened, for the spring of the lid had not caught. Lisetta was more and more aston- |ished : she looked at the weapons—she found that one of them had been very recently used, while the other was all bright. She was growing bewildered: strange ideas already began to float in her mind, yet scarcely taking the form of sus- picions. She still further investigated the con- tents of the wardrobe: she found the suit of male apparel which she knew her mistress possessed; and there were unmistakable evidences that it had been very lately used. It was all dusty: it had been hurriedly rolled up and tossed into a drawer. What could be the meaning of this? There was visible haste in the way in which the clothes had been flung into one drawer—the powder-flask into another,—likewise in the way in which the pistol had been disposed of in its case. Lisetta grow frightened; for now there were indeed suspicions arising in her mind. After some reflection she descended to the stables; and on some pretext or another she got into conversa. tion with the groom who had special charge of the. Marechioness di Mirano’s own favourite riding- horse. From this man she dexterously elicited the fact that on the preceding evening the Mar- chioness had descended in male costume, by means of a private door opening into that part of the stable establishment—that she had ordered her steed to be accoutred with a saddle suiting the sex she was assuming—and having enjoined the groom to strict silence, she rode away. She was absent about a couple of hours, perhaps not so much ; and the groom, according to previous in- structions, was in readiness to receive her with all due circumstances of secrecy. On hearing this statement, Lisetta’s suspicions were strengthened, if not absolutely confirmed. She however saw that the groom himself attached no particular im- portance to the incident : it was not the first time that his mistress had indulged in what he took to be a whimsical freak or else a love-intrigue of some kind; and Lisetta did not communicate her own suspicions nor excite those of the domestic. She was shocked and stupified ; and she consi- dered it necessary to collect other proofs before she adopted any determined step. On her return to the dressing-chamber, she contented herself with marking the particular pistol which pre- sented the evidences of such recent use; and she left the two drawers just in the same state as that in which she found them, so that the Marchioness might not know she had looked into them at all. She waited to see whether the ‘Marchioness would order her to pué the contents of the drawers to rights—and if sc, what explanation she would give in reference to their disturbed condition. But on the following evening, when Lisetta again happened to be by herself in that suite of rooms, she found the gar- ments had been carefully brushed and folded in a proper manner—the pistol had been cleaned— the top screwed upon the powder flask—and all the powder which had escaped was cleared away, Lisetta felt convinced that none of her companion- damsels had. been ordered to do this work, and (Ee book @ ©) im