was afraid some of her
lovers would follow her, and wishing to conceal the route she had gone,
took the idea of substituting me for herself, and sent me to Rome, where
she is to write me her destination. You followed me instead of her. She
was right, and had good reason to act as she did.' 'Then she has not yet
left,' asked I, thinking of a means to rejoin her. 'She was to leave
Naples,' said the woman, 'an hour after me, and is, no doubt, now far
from the city.' 'And does she travel alone on these dangerous roads?'
said I. 'Oh, no, she travels with him.' 'With him! of whom, for heaven's
sake, do you speak?' 'Ah,' said the woman, 'La Felina would never
forgive me if I told you. He, too, might make me pay dearly for my
indiscretion.' I begged, I besought the woman to conceal nothing from
me, and gave her all the money I had, promising to increase the sum
tenfold. She yielded at last, and told me that _La Felina_ had left
Naples with her lover. Her lover! do you hear?" continued Taddeo, in a
delirium of rage, "and her lover is the minister of police, the Duke of
Palma."

"More perfidious than the water!" said Monte-Leone, contemptuously.
"Poor Taddeo!"

"Do not pity me," said the latter, in a paroxysm of terrible rage. "I
was to be pitied when I loved her, when a divinity dwelt in my soul,
when my love was ecstatic and endowed her with an innocence, which my
reason told me she did not possess. I was fool enough to deceive myself.
Now this woman to be sure is but a woman; she is less than feminine, as
the mistress of a rich and powerful noble, the Duke of Palmo. Love might
have killed me, but contempt has stifled love."

His head fell on his chest, and he wept. He wept as man weeps for a
departed passion, which has vivified his heart, but which yields to
death, or worse still, another passion.

"My friend," said Monte-Leone, "your grief is cruel, but I suffer more
intensely!" Monte-Leone told Taddeo what had taken place at Sorrento.

The friends were again locked in the arms of each other, and mingled
their tears--the one for the loss of an _earthly passion_, and the other
for a _celestial affection_, as Monte-Leone characterized the two
sentiments when he read a letter of Rovero's. Taddeo had appointed the
following day for his return to Sorrento, and faithful to his promise he
left Naples for the villa of his mother. The farewell of the two men was
sad and touching, for a long time must elapse before they met again.