ordid father; and, without any appeal to
his daughter's inclinations, her hand was promised to a man of more
than twice her age, forbidding in his exterior, coarse and revolting
in his manners, and utterly destitute of redeeming qualities. I had
determined, before my acquaintance with you commenced, to make
occasional visits during the summer to Peschiera, and I hesitated to
accept your proposal, from an apprehension that it would impede my
interviews with Laura. On farther consideration, however, I perceived
that my abode under your roof would not be incompatible with nocturnal
visits to the Villa Foscari, and I became your guest. My interviews
with Laura have been more frequent in this quiet and rural district,
than in the narrow streets and numerous obstacles of Venice. The
wide extent of her father's garden enables me to scale the wall
unperceived, and to reach a garden saloon communicating by a covered
trellice walk with the villa. Laura's abhorrence of the presuming and
insolent Barozzo has proved a powerful auxiliary to my renewed
entreaties that she would fly with me from the miseries which menace
her, and I have recently succeeded in obtaining her reluctant consent
to accompany me to Genoa, and from thence to Greece. A fortnight hence
is appointed for the celebration of her marriage to the wretch who
basely wooes her, with a consciousness of her unqualified antipathy to
his person and character. If the strong attachment of Laura to her
mother does not again baffle my hopes, we shall effect our escape
three days before the one appointed for her marriage with Barozzo; but
I can discern too well, through her invincible dejection, that she is
still balancing the dreadful alternatives of a marriage abhorrent to
her feelings, and the abandonment of her mother."

Such was the tale of Colonna's brief, but trying and calamitous
career. Deeply as I lamented his approaching departure, I felt too
much interested in his success to withhold my active co-operation, and
I pledged myself to promote his views as far as I could, without
openly compromising myself with the Foscari family; but I entreated
him to relinquish his design of painting the portraits of Laura
and Barozzo, from an apprehension that a lover so fervent and
demonstrative would, in some unguarded moment, excite suspicion, and
frustrate the accomplishment of his ultimate views. He thanked me for
the ready zeal with which I had entered into his feelings, and assu