L'J:> LE LUCCIOLE, 



concealed, and with inward maledictions on the noisy group 

 which was drawing near,, he turned to meet it. Some of the 

 party had caught a momentary glimpse of a retreating female 

 figure ; but the Lady Beatrice, as well as her betrothed, having 

 been missed from the ball-room, it was only supposed that the 

 lovers had stolen from the festive scene for half an hour's 

 converse beneath the gentle moon. Maidenly bashfulness 

 might explain the lady's flight, and her preference for re- 

 turning to the palazzo alone rather than accompanied by the 

 merry maskers. 



Having seen them all re-enter the building, Bianca issued 

 from her covert. As she left the moon-lit terrace, and regained 

 the olive grove, a thrill of terror, sudden as the transition 

 from light to darkness, shot through her frame ; her limbs 

 trembled, and she was glad to seek the support of an aged 

 olive, the trunk of which, partially decayed, showed white in 

 the surrounding gloom. Not once that night had she thought 

 of the dreaded Lncciole not one had flitted across her path 

 but at the moment she touched the olive tree, they fell around 

 her from amongst its foliage in a shower of living sparks. 



AY ell now might the maiden tremble ; well might the drops 

 of terror mingle with the night-dews on her marble brow ; not 

 for the harmless glitter of the Lucciole, but for a glimpse of 

 gleaming, and no fancied horrors, which their light revealed. 

 She saw (for an instant) the sparkling of diamonds amidst 

 raven tresses the flashing of dark eyes distended with vin- 



