第152章

Most of my readers are aware that the second act of "Parisina" opens with the celebrated and effective duet in which Parisina, while sleeping, betrays to Azzo the secret of her love for Ugo.The injured husband goes through all the emotions of jealousy, until conviction seizes on his mind, and then, in a frenzy of rage and indignation, he awakens his guilty wife to tell her that he knows her guilt and to threaten her with his vengeance.This duet is one of the most beautiful, expressive and terrible conceptions that has ever emanated from the fruitful pen of Donizetti.Franz now listened to it for the third time; yet it's notes, so tenderly expressive and fearfully grand as the wretched husband and wife give vent to their different griefs and passions, thrilled through the soul of Franz with an effect equal to his first emotions upon hearing it.Excited beyond his usual calm demeanor, Franz rose with the audience, and was about to join the loud, enthusiastic applause that followed; but suddenly his purpose was arrested, his hands fell by his sides, and the half-uttered "bravos" expired on his lips.The occupant of the box in which the Greek girl sat appeared to share the universal admiration that prevailed; for he left his seat to stand up in front, so that, his countenance being fully revealed, Franz had no difficulty in recognizing him as the mysterious inhabitant of Monte Cristo, and the very same person he had encountered the preceding evening in the ruins of the Colosseum, and whose voice and figure had seemed so familiar to him.All doubt of his identity was now at an end; his singular host evidently resided at Rome.The surprise and agitation occasioned by this full confirmation of Franz's former suspicion had no doubt imparted a corresponding expression to his features; for the countess, after gazing with a puzzled look at his face, burst into a fit of laughter, and begged to know what had happened."Countess," returned Franz, totally unheeding her raillery, "I asked you a short time since if you knew any particulars respecting the Albanian lady opposite; I must now beseech you to inform me who and what is her husband?""Nay," answered the countess, "I know no more of him than yourself.""Perhaps you never before noticed him?"

"What a question -- so truly French! Do you not know that we Italians have eyes only for the man we love?""True," replied Franz.

"All I call say is," continued the countess, taking up the lorgnette, and directing it toward the box in question, "that the gentleman, whose history I am unable to furnish, seems to me as though he had just been dug up; he looks more like a corpse permitted by some friendly grave-digger to quit his tomb for a while, and revisit this earth of ours, than anything human.How ghastly pale he is!""Oh, he is always as colorless as you now see him," said Franz.

"Then you know him?" almost screamed the countess."Oh, pray do, for heaven's sake, tell us all about -- is he a vampire, or a resuscitated corpse, or what?""I fancy I have seen him before; and I even think he recognizes me.""And I can well understand," said the countess, shrugging up her beautiful shoulders, as though an involuntary shudder passed through her veins, "that those who have once seen that man will never be likely to forget him." The sensation experienced by Franz was evidently not peculiar to himself;another, and wholly uninterested person, felt the same unaccountable awe and misgiving."Well." inquired Franz, after the countess had a second time directed her lorgnette at the box, "what do you think of our opposite neighbor?""Why, that he is no other than Lord Ruthven himself in a living form." This fresh allusion to Byron* drew a smile to Franz's countenance; although he could but allow that if anything was likely to induce belief in the existence of vampires, it would be the presence of such a man as the mysterious personage before him.

"I must positively find out who and what he is," said Franz, rising from his seat.

"No, no," cried the countess; "you must not leave me.Idepend upon you to escort me home.Oh, indeed, I cannot permit you to go."* Scott, of course: "The son of an ill-fated sire, and the father of a yet more unfortunate family, bore in his looks that cast of inauspicious melancholy by which the physiognomists of that time pretended to distinguish those who were predestined to a violent and unhappy death." -- The Abbot, ch.xxii.

"Is it possible," whispered Franz, "that you entertain any fear?""I'll tell you," answered the countess."Byron had the most perfect belief in the existence of vampires, and even assured me that he had seen them.The description he gave me perfectly corresponds with the features and character of the man before us.Oh, he is the exact personification of what Ihave been led to expect! The coal-black hair, large bright, glittering eyes, in which a wild, unearthly fire seems burning, -- the same ghastly paleness.Then observe, too, that the woman with him is altogether unlike all others of her sex.She is a foreigner -- a stranger.Nobody knows who she is, or where she comes from.No doubt she belongs to the same horrible race he does, and is, like himself, a dealer in magical arts.I entreat of you not to go near him -- at least to-night; and if to-morrow your curiosity still continues as great, pursue your researches if you will; but to-night you neither can nor shall.For that purpose I mean to keep you all to myself." Franz protested he could not defer his pursuit till the following day, for many reasons.