Zanoni

your lot. Pledge me in a sentiment, ‘Long life to the fortunate lover — a quick release to the baffl ed suitor’?”

poured into his glass, he repeated, fi xing his eyes on the prince, “I pledge you even in this wine!”

Never did wit more sparkling, airy, exhilarating, fl ash from the lips of reveller. His spirits fascinated all present — even the prince himself, even Glyndon — with a strange and wild contagion. The former, indeed, whom the words and gaze of Zanoni, when he drained the poison, had fi lled with fearful misgivings, now hailed in the brilliant eloquence of his wit a certain sign of the operation of the bane. The wine circu­lated fast; but none seemed conscious of its effects. One by one the rest of the party fell into a charmed and spellbound silence, as Zanoni continued to pour forth sally upon sally, tale upon tale. They hung on his words, they almost held their breath to listen. Yet, how bitter was his mirth; how full of contempt for the trifl ers present, and for the trifl es which made their life!

and then, for the fi rst time, the effect of the wine they had drunk seemed to make itself felt.

its so excited as on that evening; we were like so many boys released from school, jostling each other as we reeled or ran down the fl ight of seven or eight stairs that led from the col­onnade into the garden — some laughing, some whooping, some scolding, some babbling. The wine had brought out, as it were, each man’s inmost character. Some were loud and quar­relsome, others sentimental and whining; some, whom we had hitherto thought dull, most mirthful; some, whom we had ever

regarded as discreet and taciturn, most garrulous and uproari­ous. I remember that in the midst of our clamorous gayety, my eye fell upon the cavalier Signor Zanoni, whose conversa­tion had so enchanted us all; and I felt a certain chill come over me to perceive that he wore the same calm and unsym­pathising smile upon his countenance which had character­ised it in his singular and curious stories of the court of Louis XIV. I felt, indeed, half-inclined to seek a quarrel with one whose composure was almost an insult to our disorder. Nor was such an effect of this irritating and mocking tranquillity confi ned to myself alone. Several of the party have told me since, that on looking at Zanoni they felt their blood yet more heated, and gayety change to resentment. There seemed in his icy smile a very charm to wound vanity and provoke rage. It was at this moment that the prince came up to me, and, passing his arm into mine, led me a little apart from the rest. He had certainly indulged in the same excess as ourselves, but it did not produce the same effect of noisy excitement. There was, on the contrary, a certain cold arrogance and supercilious scorn in his bearing and language, which, even while affecting so much caressing courtesy towards me, roused my self-love against him. He seemed as if Zanoni had infected him; and in imitating the manner of his guest, he surpassed the original. He rallied me on some court gossip, which had honoured my name by associating it with a certain beautiful and dis­tinguished Sicilian lady, and affected to treat with contempt that which, had it been true, I should have regarded as a boast. He spoke, indeed, as if he himself had gathered all the fl ow­ers of Naples, and left us foreigners only the gleanings he had

displeased me before. ‘He would monopolize all fortune and all love. Let us take our revenge.’

tion put upon a misfortune the memory of which will affl ict me to the last hour of my life.