told it, awestruck as they both were, especially the mother,
who gave vent to her loathing in execrations against the old
hypocritical magician, and in her rage more than half believed that he
had himself been the cause of her daughter's death, having perhaps
taken a bribe for that purpose from the family of Marconi, that he had
poisoned her for the sake of awakening her corpse again to gratify his
frantic abominations.

"Let us leave all this to heaven;" said the old man. "What happened
and was notorious to the whole city and country, was quite horrible
enough, without involving others, who may perhaps have been innocent,
in this enormous wickedness. However, let the matter with regard to
the Marconis stand as it may, I am perfectly resolved that they shall
never be the better off for my fortune. By the help of my patrons here
I shall obtain leave to make over my property to some convents or
charitable foundations; and perhaps my weariness of life may lead me
to end my own days as a monk or hermit."

"But what," threw in the mother weeping, "if it were possible after
all to find out that second Crescentia again, of whom Antonio has told
us! The child was stolen from me during your absence in a most
incomprehensible manner; the witch who named the Marconis on that
night, the likeness, all, all agrees so wonderfully, that surely we
ought not to cast away hope, that first and chief good of life, too
early, not too hastily, in our despair."

"Good Eudoxia," said the father, "have done, have done with all these
dreams and stories and wild fancies: for us there remains in this
world nothing that is certain, except death; and that ours may be
pious and easy, is what we must wish and pray to heaven for."

"And if hereafter, when it is already too late," exclaimed the mother,
"our poor orphan child should be found again, may not the unhappy girl
justly reproach us for not relying on the bounty and mercy of Heaven,
and waiting for her return with a little more calmness and patience?"

Ambrosio cast a dark frown on the youth, and then said: "This too has
come in over and above all the rest to deepen our wretchedness: you
have infected my poor wife with your sick fancies, and have thereby
robbed her of her peace, the only, the last blessing of life."

"What mean you by these words?" askt Antonio.

"Young man," answered the father, "ever since that ride of yours
through field and forest, when you pinned that wild tale upon