The Project Gutenberg EBook of Zicci, Complete, by Edward Bulwer-Lytton

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Title: Zicci, Complete

Author: Edward Bulwer-Lytton

Last Updated: March 15, 2009
Release Date: October 29, 2006 [EBook #7608]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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Produced by Pat Castevens and David Widger

ZICCI

A Tale

BOOK I.

CHAPTER I.

In the gardens at Naples, one summer evening in the last century, some
four or five gentlemen were seated under a tree drinking their sherbet
and listening, in the intervals of conversation, to the music which
enlivened that gay and favorite resort of an indolent population. One
of this little party was a young Englishman who had been the life of the
whole group, but who for the last few moments had sunk into a gloomy and
abstracted revery. One of his countrymen observed this sudden gloom,
and tapping him on the back, said, "Glyndon, why, what ails you? Are you
ill? You have grown quite pale; you tremble: is it a sudden chill? You
had better go home; these Italian nights are often dangerous to our
English constitutions."

"No, I am well now,--it was but a passing shudder; I cannot account for
it myself."

A man apparently of about thirty years of age, and of a mien and
countenance strikingly superior to those around him, turned abruptly,
and looked steadfastly at Glyndon.

"I think I understand what you mean," said he,--"and perhaps," he added,
with a grave smile, "I could explain it better than yourself."
Here, turning to the others, he added, "You must often have felt,
gentlemen,--each and all of you,--especially when sitting alone at
night, a strange and unaccountable sensation of coldness and awe creep
over you; your blood curdles, and the heart stands still; the limbs
shiver, the hair bristles; you are afraid to look up, to turn your
eyes to the darker corners of the room; you have a horrible fancy that
something unearthly is at hand. Presently the whole spell, if I may so
call it, passes away, and you are ready to laugh at your own weakness.
Have you not often felt what I have thus imperfectly described? If so,
you can understand wha