he portentous agitation of Barozzo had grown out of
some incipient feelings of jealousy and suspicion, I remonstrated with
Colonna, during our walk, on the gratuitous imprudence of his
deportment, and pointed out the personal danger he had incurred by
thus taunting a man so powerful and irritable as the governor of
Candia. I urged him to accelerate his flight, and, meanwhile, never to
leave the villa unarmed.

In reply, however, he expressed his conviction that the sudden change
of countenance and colour in Barozzo did not originate in jealousy,
and that a man so imperious and overbearing would have betrayed this
spirit-stirring passion in a manner widely different. "No, Pisani!" he
continued, in a voice quivering with emotion; "my suspicions go
farther. The springs of this man's actions lie deep, and a prophetic
spirit tells me that he is not innocent of my noble father's murder.
Until this morning, he deigned not to bestow more than a superficial
glance upon the features of an obscure artist in homely apparel, but
when our eyes met, in keen and unavoidable collision, the resemblance
I bear to my deceased parent flashed upon his guilty soul; and from
his sudden and uncontrollable emotion, I cannot but infer his
participation in the crimes of Cosmo. Inference, you will say, is no
proof; but it gives me a clue which I will track until I reach
conviction. It is the intention of Laura, who cannot resolve to quit
her mother, to retard for a considerable period the celebration of her
marriage, by feigned paroxysms of indisposition. I will avail myself
of this delay to bring home to Barozzo the evidence of his guilt, and
defy him to mortal combat; or, should he shrink from it, I will treat
him as a savage and noxious animal, and hunt him to death."

I could not but admit that there was some ground for the suspicions of
Colonna; but, from an apprehension of rousing his whirlwind passions
into premature activity, I concealed from him my knowledge that,
before the departure of Barozzo for Candia, he had passed some
weeks at Florence, where his congenial disposition had powerfully
recommended him to the good graces of Cosmo. They were in habits
of daily intercourse, and Barozzo was not the man who would, from
honourable feeling, decline to forward the murderous views of the
implacable ruler of Tuscany.

From this eventful day Colonna was an altered man. Revenge became the
ruling passion of his soul; and while he awaited with g