r arms, Cornelia instantly
began to tremble, gazed at him intently, and cried out in haste, "Tell
me, good woman, is this child the same that you brought me a short time
since?" "It is the same, Signora," replied the woman. "How is it, then,
that his clothing is so different? Certainly, dame housekeeper, either
these are other wrappings, or the infant is not the same." "It may all
be as you say," began the old woman. "All as I say!" interrupted
Cornelia, "how and what is this? I conjure you, friend, by all you most
value, to tell me whence you received these rich clothes; for my heart
seems to be bursting in my bosom! Tell me the cause of this change; for
you must know that these things belong to me, if my sight do not deceive
me, and my memory have not failed. In these robes, or some like them, I
entrusted to a servant of mine the treasured jewel of my soul! Who has
taken them from him? Ah, miserable creature that I am! who has brought
these things here? Oh, unhappy and woeful day!"

Don Juan and Don Antonio, who were listening to all this, could not
suffer the matter to go further, nor would they permit the exchange of
the infant's dress to trouble the poor lady any longer. They therefore
entered the room, and Don Juan said, "This infant and its wrappings are
yours, Signora;" and immediately he related from point to point how the
matter had happened. He told Cornelia that he was himself the person to
whom the waiting woman had given the child, and how he had brought it
home, with the orders he had given to the housekeeper respecting its
change of clothes, and his motives for doing so. He added that, from the
moment when she had spoken of her own infant, he had felt certain that
this was no other than her son; and if he had not told her so at once,
that was because he feared the effects of too much gladness, coming
immediately after the heavy grief which her trials had caused her.

The tears of joy then shed by Cornelia were many and long-continued;
infinite were the acknowledgments she offered to Heaven, innumerable the
kisses she lavished on her son, and profuse the thanks which she
offered from her heart to the two friends, whom she called her guardian
angels on earth, with other names, which gave abundant proof of her
gratitude. They soon afterwards left the lady with their housekeeper,
whom they enjoined to attend her well, and do her all the service
possible--having made known to the woman the position in which C