s to escape.

The streets are threaded, the suburbs of the city are passed, the open
country is gained; and now along the bank of the Arno rushes the
monster, by the margin of that pure stream to whose enchanting vale the
soft twilight lends a more delicious charm.

On the verge of a grove, with its full budding branches all impatient
for the spring, a lover and his mistress were murmuring fond language to
each other. In the soft twilight blushed the maiden, less in bashfulness
than in her own soul's emotion, her countenance displaying all the magic
beauty not only of feature but of feeling; and she raised her large blue
eyes in the dewy light of a sweet enthusiasm to the skies, as the
handsome youth by her side pressed her fair hand and said, "We must now
part until to-morrow, darling of my soul! How calmly has this day, with
all its life and brightness, passed away into the vast tomb of eternity.
It is gone without a single hour's unhappiness for us--gone without
leaving a regret on our minds--gone, too, without clouds in the heavens
or mists upon the earth, most beautiful even at the moment of its
parting! Tomorrow, beloved one, will unite us again in your parents'
cot, and renewed happiness----"

The youth stopped, and the maiden clung to him in speechless terror: for
an ominous sound, as of a rushing animal and then a terrific howl, burst
upon their ears! No time had they for flight, not a moment even to
collect their scattered thoughts. The infuriate wolf came bounding over
the greensward, the youth uttered a wild and fearful cry, a scream of
agony burst from the lips of the maiden as she was dashed from her
lover's arms, and in another moment the monster had swept by.

But what misery, what desolation had his passage wrought! Though unhurt
by his glistening fangs--though unwounded by his sharp claws, yet the
maiden--an instant before so enchanting in her beauty, so happy in her
love--lay stretched on the cold turf, the cords of life snapped suddenly
by that transition from perfect bliss to the most appalling terror!

And still the wolf rushed madly, wildly on.

* * * * *

It was an hour past sunrise; and from a grove in the immediate
neighborhood of Leghorn a man came forth. His countenance, though
wondrously handsome, was deadly pale; traces of mental horror and
anguish remained on those classically chiseled features, and in those
fine eloquent eyes. His garments were soiled