Page:Romance & Reality 3.pdf/265

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ROMANCE AND REALITY.
263

Before morning they were out of sight of Naples. For the information of all interested in such matters, we beg leave to state, that the insurrection ended in a proclamation, setting forth, that, thanks to Santo Januario, the lemons promised to be especially productive, and that there was to be a display of fireworks in his honour at the next festival.

A Signora Rossinuola, with the face of a goddess, and the voice of an angel, made her first curtsy that evening to the Neapolitans. She was received with the most rapturous applause. Nothing was heard of next day but her shake and her smile. Her rival talked of an ungrateful public, and set off for England. The next year she outbid the Queen of Naples for a diamond necklace.

Essays are written on causes—they might be more pithily turned on consequences. The Neapolitan revolution ended in the departure of one actress, the début of another, and the escape of a nun. Well, the importance of an event is to the individual. One of Beatrice's first acts was to give Lorraine's letter to her father. It was filled with expressions of the most generous and devoted attachment, mentioned his intention of returning to Spain, there