im, had long rejected the
hand of the Neapolitan minister of police when the most powerful reasons
would have induced her to accept it. She married the Duke only because
of the deep and irrepressible passion which animated her heart for the
Count Monte-Leone. She knew the Count loved Aminta; she knew that, when
at liberty, he would marry the sister of Taddeo. Anxious to contend with
herself by creating new weapons to oppose the passion which devoured
her, anxious to build up a new barrier between the Count and herself,
and to prepare a defence for her own heart, she accepted the hand of the
Duke of Palma as a rampart of duty, and, as it were, forcibly to leave a
profession, the triumphs of which disgusted and offended her because she
regretted having ever experienced them. These were the reasons or
reasonings which led La Felina to act as she did. We shall see, at a
later period, that she achieved her purpose.

The Duke of Palma having secretly married _La Felina_ in the town of
Ferentino, the day Monte-Leone recognized him, took his beautiful wife
to a villa he possessed on the _lago di Como_, and after sojourning
there a few days, went to Naples and forced the King to accept his
resignation as minister of police. The Duke was dissatisfied with
Naples, for no one would forgive him for marrying the Prima-Donna. The
two then came to Paris after a brief mission, during which the Duke had
been obliged to leave her alone at the _lago di Como_. There they
purchased the hotel of which we have spoken, and prepared to receive the
court, and exhibit all the aristocratic luxury with which the Duke of
Palma was so familiar. One circumstance, however, which had been
entirely unforeseen, wrecked all their hopes. The best society of Paris,
which is so lenient to some eccentricities, yet so rigid in its exaction
of obedience to certain prejudices--the society to which, from rank and
position, the Duke of Palma belonged, was rebellious. Among the nobles
of the restoration there were a few exceptions, and though the persons
who ventured to the Duke's were perfectly well received--though they
praised in the highest degree the graces and exquisite _haut-ton_ of the
Duchess, their example was not followed, and the hotel remained silent
and empty. The Duke and Duchess lived alone, buried in a magnificent
tomb. The cause of this neglect of the invitations of the ex-minister
may be easily divined. The Duke had married La Felina, the singer, ab