w him tremble; he sank on the bench.
And then--"

"Yes, then," said Cetoxa, "to my infinite surprise, our gentleman, thus
disarmed by a look from Zanoni, turned his whole anger upon me, THE--but
perhaps you do not know, gentlemen, that I have some repute with my
weapon?"

"The best swordsman in Italy," said Belgioso.

"Before I could guess why or wherefore," resumed Cetoxa, "I found myself
in the garden behind the house, with Ughelli (that was the Sicilian's
name) facing me, and five or six gentlemen, the witnesses of the duel
about to take place, around. Zanoni beckoned me aside. 'This man will
fall,' said he. 'When he is on the ground, go to him, and ask whether he
will be buried by the side of his father in the church of San Gennaro?'
'Do you then know his family?' I asked with great surprise. Zanoni made
me no answer, and the next moment I was engaged with the Sicilian. To
do him justice, his imbrogliato was magnificent, and a swifter lounger
never crossed a sword; nevertheless," added Cetoxa, with a pleasing
modesty, "he was run through the body. I went up to him; he could
scarcely speak. 'Have you any request to make,--any affairs to settle?'
He shook his head. 'Where would you wish to be interred?' He pointed
towards the Sicilian coast. 'What!' said I, in surprise, 'NOT by the
side of your father, in the church of San Gennaro?' As I spoke, his face
altered terribly; he uttered a piercing shriek,--the blood gushed from
his mouth, and he fell dead. The most strange part of the story is to
come. We buried him in the church of San Gennaro. In doing so, we took
up his father's coffin; the lid came off in moving it, and the skeleton
was visible. In the hollow of the skull we found a very slender wire of
sharp steel; this caused surprise and inquiry. The father, who was rich
and a miser, had died suddenly, and been buried in haste, owing, it
was said, to the heat of the weather. Suspicion once awakened, the
examination became minute. The old man's servant was questioned, and at
last confessed that the son had murdered the sire. The contrivance was
ingenious: the wire was so slender that it pierced to the brain,
and drew but one drop of blood, which the grey hairs concealed. The
accomplice will be executed."

"And Zanoni,--did he give evidence, did he account for--"

"No," interrupted the count: "he declared that he had by accident
visited the church that morning; that he had observed the tombstone of
the Count Ugh