Page:Forget Me Not (1826).djvu/81

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THE BRIDGE OF SIGHS.
59

lips quivered; his knees shook; conscious guilt was depicted in all his features. Towards evening he repaired, with a full purse in his bosom, to the palace of the supreme tribunal. The habitation of the gaoler was soon found. His heart was moved, not by the gold, which he proudly rejected, but by the deplorable state of Camillo, to whom he disclosed what he was desirous of knowing. He had himself conducted Apollonia and her husband, after their examination, to their fate across the Bridge of Sighs. “Then”—he made gestures to signify strangulation; and Camillo was obliged to lay hold of the iron gate to keep himself from falling. In the prison where they had been confined together, they had left some words written on the wall. Camillo begged as the highest favour to be permitted to see this writing, and his request was granted. The writing was Apollonia’s, which Camillo knew but too well, only traced by a trembling hand. Silently weeping, he fell upon his knees, apparently offering up a short prayer: he then quitted the terrific building, and hastened back to the Frangipani palace, where he gave the porter all his money, with the injunction to cause masses to be said annually on the 3d of September for his master and mistress. He then hurried away, and was never heard of afterwards.

C. B. von Miltitz.