198 TEMPTATION. 



among the guests. Beatrice in all the blaze of jewels, rank, 

 and beauty queen of the night, Marco, her devoted subject, 

 in a day or two to be her lord. 



" Oh no," thought Bianca, as she hastened through the 

 grove ; " there's no fear that I shall meet with him." 



She found the gate open which led from the olive planta- 

 tion into the Palazzo garden, and had only to step at once upon 

 the terrace walk, which lay in the bright moonlight, clear and 

 unoccupied. 



" Bianca my Bianca !" whispered a well-known voice, and 

 Marco, wearing a Spanish dress and masked, but to her in no 

 disguise, stood beside her. What could he, the young patri- 

 cian, the affianced, well nigh the wedded husband of a fitting 

 bride, have now to say to her, the foolish maiden of low degree, 

 who had too long listed to his beguiling tales ? Why, even at 

 this eleventh hour, he had yet another for her ear a tale of 

 love and seeming madness. He had stolen away, he said, from 

 yonder brilliant company, from Beatrice, the brightest of 

 them all, to seek his Bianca, as he had purposed, at her home. 

 They, she and her old father, should still sail on the morrow, 

 at early dawn ; but he would be the companion of their voyage. 

 The captain of the galley should be bribed to convey them not 

 to the Neapolitan estate but a port of France, and there, with- 

 out a thought of rank, of home, or even of honour forfeited, he 

 would make her his lawful bride. 



The maiden heard only to reject the dazzling, dangerous 

 proffer ; but Marco still urged ; when distant voices were heard 

 shouting out his name, and turning towards the villa they saw 

 several persons issuing from under the piazza, and advancing 

 towards them. " Go, go, Marco ! May blessings ever attend 

 thee!" and Bianca, as she spoke, burst from her lover's 

 detaining grasp, and retreated from the terrace, behind the 

 screen of a tall adjacent shrub. The young man followed for 

 a pace or two, then stopped and hesitated. He distinguished, 

 amongst the approaching voices, that of Pietro Doria, Beatrice's 



