Agnes: A Tale of the Streets — page 178: what you’re looking at

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

AGNES; OB, BEAUTY AND PLEASURE. Countess: “orelse you would not have come to the tribunal to speak on his behalf and endeavour to undo all the mischief you have done. And in- deed, if I were not convinced that you now bitterly, bitterly repent the part you have performed, I should not be here! Tell me, Bianca—what was it that you whispered in his ear as you rapidly passed him by f—what meant the billet which was delivered to youP Ia there any bope ?” “Oh there was then, Lucia!” cried the Princess: “but, alas! now it exists no longer! They were words of hope which I whispered in his ear-——” “And if they be doomed to experience disap- pointment,” interjected Liuciay an expression of perfect agony sweeping over her beautiful coun- tenance, “how terrible for him !—and Oh! how fatal for his unhappy mother !” . “‘ His mother P” echoed the Princess. “Ob, the unfortunate parent!” “You may well speak of her in these terms, Bianca! Sho adores her son—she knows him to be innocent of any willing complicity in the con- spiracy against Leghorn—I have told her every- thing ” “What P you have seen her?” cried the Prin- cess. “'Yes—I saw her juet now at tife house of General Germini. I was removed thither in a swoon :—the Signora De Vere was there at the same time, and in a similar condition, She knew that her son was condemned to death. I was first brought back to consciousness; and Oh! never, never shall I forget the scene which followed when the unbappy mother herself regained her senses ! —Bianca,” added Lucia, with an impressiveness that was solemn and even awful to a degree, “if you had witnessed that spectacle, it would have been almost punishment enough for the crime which you committed in betraying the young man into the grasp of the law !” “Lucia!” exclaimed ¢he Prinoess, with a wild- ness in her looks and accents, “I am almost driven ts that state of mind in which I feel that I could do something desperate !—ae if I could commit Suother great crimge_in order to destroy the effects of the one which Fagest perpetrated ! I must save that young man—or I shall go mad! I care not now for the safety of either body or soul, in com- parison with the seourity of that young life which I have eo iniquitously jeopardised |” | “Of what avail ie this discourse, Bianoa,” asked the Countess, shaking her head mournfully, “ if there bo no plan nor project to which you can have recourse for the salvation of the Count ?” “Let us go,” cried the Princess, passionately, “and throw ourselyes at the feet of General Germini |” “ Useless—utterly useless,’ said Lucia. “ His daughters—two amiable and excellent girla—have already supplicated their father to use his power or influence: but he declared that be could not.” “Have you seen him———I mean my victim,” inquired the Princess, rapidly, “ since the tribunal broke up ?” . “No,” answered the Countess. “He was at once conducted away to the military prison; and General Germini isaued the strictest orders that no one should be admitted to him, except a priest or clergyman of whatever denomination of religion he himself might be» But when the General 868 knew that the unfortunate young noblemanw mother had arrived in Sienna, he was constrained to make an exception in her favour. She there- fore ig now with her son;—and Oh! my very brain reels as I picture to myself what wuat be the agony of the poor lady as she clasps in her arms that son who she knows must in a few bours be a cold corpse! She must look upon his hand- some countenance—and in the depths of her agony she must cry out that it is impossible the life of one 40 beautiful and so young, s2 intelligent and so good, can thus be hovering on the very verge of the grave!’ | “Do not talk thus, Lucia! do not talk thus !” cried Bianca, with nervous quickness, as she again started up from her seat: “you drive me mad! Oh, that I could save him! Ob, that f ould give him back in safety to that mother who is now distractedly straining him to her bosom !” “What hope had you just now?” inquired the Countess: “and how was it so suddenly dissi- pated ?” _ ; The Princess explained in a few words how Ragueo and Spezazi had got possession of the cor- respondence of the late King of Sardinia—~but | how they had refused to give it up at the en- treaty of Stefano Voitura. Lucia had read the placard which had been so recently posted, and which so intimately regarded that correspondence : —ghe was therefore terribly afflicted when she learnt that Raguso and Spezzi positively refused to surrender it. “Leave me now, Lucia!” aaid her siater : “ go and see if you can be of any use to the Signora De Vere, and if by any means you can obtain a knowledge of the prison’s internal arrangements through that lady. It may be serviceable—for Voitura is resolved not to abandon every hope until the very last. Tell me that you do not altogether hate me, sister--and then leave me |” ** You aro penitent, Bianca—and I cannot hate you,” responded the Countess. “ God grant that the life of this young man may yet be spared, eo that you need not be crushed down to the very earth with shame and remorse, and with a feeling as if——” “As if I were a murderess!” added Bianca, thus finishing the sentence which her sister dared not complete, In a few moments the Princess was again alone: but Signor Vuitura soon returned — and be in- formed her that he had been enabled to learn. no- thing which was in any way hopeful or aatisfas- tory. There was something ominous in his looke ; and the Princess, after contemplating him for upwards of a minute, said, “I am convinced that you have thoughts floating in your mind which you hesitate to reveal ?” . “Yes, yes!” interrupted Stefano, speaking quickly and nervously; “a demon is struggliog to get posseasion of my soul !"’ “What mean you?P’—and the Princess gazed with a species of consternation upon the young man, for she feared lest he were going mad. “ Do not question me! do not question me!” he said. “If I once give utterance to my thoughts e-aye, if I once allow them to assume shape and substance, I shall be lost—I feel that I shall be lost!” “Stefano Voiturs,” said the Princess, “if there oO comicboo S C©