report in some parts of the town. These reflections consoled him a little, but the sensations of jealousy and the fear of danger alternately struggled with his heart.
The count, who had actually given some superficial information to the dutchess of the real state of the affair, actually went in the evening to confirm it to her by his own presence. She received him like a woman, that has long panted for an opportunity of expressing to the darling of her heart the whole extent of her tenderness. They had never yet been able to converse so free and undisturbed together. They had a thousand plans to fettle, a thousand measures to propose for facilitating their future meetings, and on the point of gratifying their wishes, a sudden and violent knocking was heard at the palace-gate. Suspecting, lest it should be the duke himself, the alarmed lovers quitted each others arms—the dutchess had ordered one of her women to be on the look-out, but she did not make her appearance. At last she came to inform her mistress, that she need not be alarmed, as the noise at the gate had only been a run-
