“You may imagine the grief of Ariodante.  It rose at once to despair.  He did not call out; so that, had not his brother followed him, still worse would have ensued than did; for he drew his sword, and was proceeding in distraction to fall upon it, when Lurcanio rushed in and stopped him.  ‘Miserable brother!’ exclaimed he, ’are you mad?  Would you die for a woman like this?  You see what a wretch she is.  I discern all your case at once, and, thank God, have preserved you to turn your sword where it ought to be turned, against the defender of such a pattern of infamy.’

“Ariodante put up his sword, and suffered himself to be led away by his brother.  He even pretended, in a little while, to be able to review his condition calmly, but not the less had he secretly resolved to perish.  Next day he disappeared, nobody knew whither; and about eight days afterwards, news was secretly brought to Ginevra, by a pilgrim, that he had thrown himself from a headland into the sea.

“‘I met him by chance,’ said the pilgrim, ’and we happened to be standing on the top of the headland, conversing, when he cried out to me, ’Relate to the princess what you beheld on parting from me; and add, that the cause of it was my having seen too much.  Happy had it been for me had I been blind!’ And with these words,’ concluded the pilgrim, ’he leaped into the sea below, and was instantly buried beneath it.’

“The princess turned as pale as death at this story, and for a while remained stupefied.  But, alas! what a scene was it my fate to witness, when she found herself in her chamber at night, able to give way to her misery.  She tore her clothes, and her very flesh, and her beautiful hair, and kept repeating the last words of her lover with amazement and despair.

The disappearance of Ariodante, and a rumour which transpired of his having slain himself on account of some hidden anguish, surprised and afflicted the whole court.  But his brother Lurcanio evinced more and more his impatience at it, and let fall the most terrible words.  At length he entered the court when the king was holding one of his fullest assemblies, and laid open, as he thought, the whole matter; setting forth how his unhappy brother had secretly, but honourably, loved the princess; how she had professed to love him in return; and how she had grossly deceived him, and played him impudently false before his own eyes.  He concluded with calling upon her unknown paramour to come forth, and shew reasons against him with his sword why she ought not to die.

“I need not tell you what the king suffered at hearing this strange and terrible recital.  He lost no time in sharply investigating the truth of the allegation; and for this purpose, among other proceedings, he sent for the ladies of his daughter’s chamber.  You may judge, sir,—­especially as, I blush to say it, I still loved the Duke of Albany,—­that I could not await an examination like that.  I