A TALE OF HORROR. 155 



of the tragic event which had occurred. His tale of horror 

 was related first to the domestics ; but he must see, he said, 

 the Marchese or his son. The former, he was told by the 

 servants, could not be disturbed so early; but their young 

 master, the Count Marco, had been up, they added, by times, 

 if, indeed, he had gone to bed at all on the conclusion, at no 

 very early hour of the morning, of the last night's entertain- 

 ment. One of the servants was about to apprize him of the 

 mariner's business, when Marco himself appeared. 



The terror-stricken faces of the seaman's late auditors pre- 

 pared him for some correspondent recital ; but not for the 

 trembling, agonizing surmises which followed on the man's 

 brief relation ; and when, in a private interview, particulars were 

 detailed which left no doubts, as far at least as concerned the 

 person of the victim, it is difficult to say how the young 

 noble was able (if he did so) to disguise the fearful intensity 

 of his individual interest in that which had befallen. 



It is more material to our narrative to notice that the 

 seaman's chief motive for desiring to speak with the masters 

 of the palazzo, was to put into their hands a splendid jewel 

 a bracelet which he had picked up, he said, lying close beside 

 the murdered maiden. None of hers (he suspected) could be 

 an ornament so unsuited to her rank and her attire, and it 

 might point to the hand by which she had fallen. 



Marco, forcing himself to say something in praise of the 

 mariner's honesty and sagacity, put a gold piece into his hand, 



