nlight reign without--yet
within the walls of the Arestino mansion a storm has gathered, to
explode fearfully. And all through the unlawful, but not less ardent,
love of Giulia for the spendthrift Marquis of Orsini!

Sober-minded men, philosophic reasoners, persons of business-habits,
stern moralists--all these may ridicule the poet or the novelist who
makes Love his everlasting theme; they may hug themselves, in the apathy
of their own cold hearts, with the belief that all the attributes of the
passion have been immensely exaggerated; but they are in error, deeply,
profoundly, indisputably in error. For Love, in its various phases,
among which are Jealousy, Suspicion, Infidelity, Rivalry, and Revenge,
has agitated the world from time immemorial--has overthrown empires, has
engendered exterminating wars, and has extended its despotic sway alike
over the gorgeous city of a consummate civilization, and the miserable
wigwam of a heathen barbarism! Who, then, can wonder--if the theme of
Love be universal--that it should have evoked the rude and iron
eloquence of the Scandinavian Scald as well as the soft and witching
poesy of the bards of more genial climes, or that its praises or its
sorrows should be sung on the banks of the Arno, the Seine, or the
Thames, as well as amidst the pathless forests of America, or the
burning sands of Africa, or in the far-off islands of the Southern Seas.

But, alas! it is thou, O woman! who art called on to make the most cruel
sacrifices at the altar of this imperious deity--love! If thou lovest
honorably, 'tis well; but if thou lovest unlawfully how wretched is thy
fate! The lover, for whose sake thou hast forgotten thy duties as a
wife, has sacrificed nothing to thee, whilst thou hast sacrificed
everything to him. Let the _amour_ be discovered, and who suffers? Thou!
He loses not caste, station, name, nor honor;--thou art suddenly robbed
of all these! The gilded saloons of fashion throw open their doors to
the seducer; but bars of adamant defend that entrance against the
seduced. For his sake thou risketh contumely, shame, reviling, scorn,
and the lingering death of a breaking heart,--for _thee_ he would not
risk one millionth part of all that! Shouldst thou be starving, say to
him, "Go forth and steal to give me bread; dare the dishonor of the
deed, and make the sacrifice of thy good name for me. Or go and forge,
or swindle, or lie foully, so that thou bringest me bread; for have I
not d