ell as to poor, for
it is most probable that the gay duchesses and countesses of your lands
will need its sharp services more frequently than the work-worn wives
of your laboring men. Luxury, idleness, and love of dress are hot-beds
for sin--look for it, therefore, not so much in the hovels of the
starving and naked as in the rose-tinted, musk-scented boudoirs of the
aristocracy--look for it, as your brave physicians would search out the
seeds of a pestilence that threatens to depopulate a great city, and
trample it out if you CAN and WILL--if you desire to keep the name of
your countries glorious in the eyes of future history. Spare not the
rod because "my lady" forsooth! with her rich hair falling around her
in beauteous dishevelment and her eyes bathed in tears, implores your
mercy--for by very reason of her wealth and station she deserves less
pity than the painted outcast who knows not where to turn for bread. A
high post demands high duty! But I talk wildly. Whipping is done away
with, for women at least--we give a well-bred shudder of disgust at the
thought of it. When do we shudder with equal disgust at our own social
enormities? Seldom or never. Meanwhile, in cases of infidelity,
husbands and wives can separate and go on their different ways in
comparative peace. Yes--some can and some do; but I am not one of
these. No law in all the world can mend the torn flag of MY honor;
therefore I must be a law to myself--a counsel, a jury, a judge, all in
one and from my decision there can be no appeal! Then I must act as
executioner--and what torture was ever so perfectly unique as the one I
have devised? So I mused, lying broadly awake, with face upturned to
the heavens, watching the light of the moon pouring itself out on the
ocean like a shower of gold, while the water rushed gurgling softly
against the sides of the brig, and broke into the laughter of white
foam as we scudded along.

CHAPTER X.

All the next day the wind was in our favor, and we arrived at Palermo
an hour before sunset. We had scarcely run into harbor when a small
party of officers and gendarmes, heavily laden with pistols and
carbines, came on board and showed a document authorizing them to
search the brig for Carmelo Neri. I was somewhat anxious for the safety
of my good friend the captain--but he was in nowise dismayed; he smiled
and welcomed the armed emissaries of the government as though they were
his dearest friends.

"To give you