t a
return! Pale, haggard, thine hands and garments dripping blood, thine
eyes blazing with insane fire, a terrible smile of mockery on thy lip,
thou stoodst before me. I would have thrown myself on thy breast; thou
didst cast me from thee; I fell on my knees, and thy blade was pointed
at my heart--the heart so full of thee! 'He is dead,' didst thou say, in
a hollow voice; 'he is dead--thy paramour--take thy bed beside him!' I
know not what I said, but it seemed to move thee; thy hand trembled, and
the point of thy weapon dropped. It was then that, hearing thy voice,
Leonarda hastened into the room, and bore in her arms thy child.
'See,' I exclaimed, 'see thy daughter; see, she stretches her hands to
thee--she pleads for her mother!' At that sight thy brow became dark,
the demon seized upon thee again. 'Mine!' were thy cruel words--they
ring in my ear still--'no! she was born before the time--ha! ha!--thou
didst betray me from the first!' With that thou didst raise thy sword;
but, even then (ah, blessed thought! even then) remorse and love palsied
thy hand, and averted thy gaze: the blow was not that of death. I fell
senseless to the ground, and when I recovered thou wert gone. Delirium
succeeded; and when once more my senses and reason returned to me, I
found by my side a holy priest, and from him, gradually, I learned
all that till then was dare. Ferrares had been found in the valley,
weltering in his blood. Borne to a neighbouring monastery, he lingered
a few days, to confess the treachery he had practised on thee; to adopt,
in his last hours, the Christian faith; and to attest his crime with
his own signature. He enjoined the monk, who had converted and confessed
him, to place this proof of my innocence in my hands. Behold it enclosed
within. If this letter ever reach thee, thou wilt learn how thy wife
was true to thee in life, and has therefore the right to bless thee in
death."

At this passage, Calderon dropped the letter, and was seized with a
kind of paralysis, which for some moments seemed to deprive him of life
itself. When he recovered he eagerly grasped a scroll that was enclosed
in the letter, but which, hitherto, he had disregarded. Even then, so
strong were his emotions, that sight itself was obscured and dimmed,
and it was long before he could read the characters, which were already
discoloured by time.

"TO INEZ.

"I have but a few hours to live,--let me spend them in atonement and in
prayer,