The Headsman The Abbaye des Vignerons

THE HEADSMAN: THE ABBAYE DES VIGNERONS

encroach on their privileges, raising the cry of the wolf each time that they hear the wail of the timid and bleating lamb, the fairest works of God would not be so often defaced. I have lived, and it is probable that I shall die an outlaw; but the severest pangs I ever know come from the the mockery which accuses my nature of abuses that are the fruits of your own injustice. That stone», kicking a bit of rock from the path into the ravine beneath, «is as much master of its direction after my foot has set its mass in motion, as the poor untaught being who is thrown upon the world, despised, unaided, suspected, and condemned even before he has sinned, has the command of his own course. My mother was fain and good. She wanted only the power to withstand the arts of one, who, honored in the opinions of all around her, undermined her virtue. He was great, noble, and powerful; while she hath little beside her beauty and her weakness. Signori, – the odds against her were too much. I was the punishment of her fault. I came into a world then, in which every m an despised me before I had done any act to deserve its scorn»,

«Nay, this is pushing opinions to extremes!» interrupted the Signor Grimaldi, who had scarce breathed, in his eagerness to catch the syllables as they came from the other’s tongue.

«We began, Signori, as we have ended; distrustful, and struggling to see which could do the other the most harm. A reverend and holy monk, who knew my history, would have filled a soul with heaven that the wrongs of the world had already driven to, the verge of hell. The experiment failed. Homily and precept», Maso smiled bitterly as he continued, «are but indifferent weapons to fight with against hourly

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JAMES FENIMORE COOPER

wrongs; instead of becoming a cardinal and the counsellor of the head of the church, I am the m an ye see. Signor Grimaldi, the monk who gave me his care was Father Girolamo. He told the truth to thy secretary, for I am the son of poor Annunziat a Altieri, who was once thought worthy to attract thy passing notice. The deception of calling myself another of thy children was practised for my own security. The means were offered by an accidental confederacy with one of the instruments of thy formidable enemy and cousin, who furnished the papers that had been taken with the little Gaetano. The truth of what I say shall be delivered to you at Genoa. As for the Signor Sigismondo, it is time we ceased to be rivals. We are brothers, with this difference in our fortunes, that he comes of wedlock, and I of an unexpiated, and almost an unrepented, crime!»

A common cry, in which regret, joy, and surprise were wildly mingled, interrupted the speaker. Adelheid threw herself into her husband’s arms, and the pale and consciencestricken Doge stood with extended arms, an image of contrition, delight, and shame. His friends pressed around him with consolation on their tongues, and the blandishments of affection in their manner, for the regrets of the great rarely pass away unheeded, like the moans of the low.

«Let me have air!» exclaimed the prince; «give me air or I suffocate! Where is the child of Annunziata? – I will at least atone to him for the wrong done his mother!»

It was too late. The victim of another’s fault had cast himself over the edge of the precipice with reckless hardihood, and he was already beyond the reach of the voice, in his swift descent, by a shorter but dangerous path, toward Aoste. Net-

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