'By no means,' replied the marchioness, in a tone of irony,
'my presence would only interrupt a very agreeable scene. The count, I
see, is willing to pay you his earliest respects.' Saying this she
disappeared, leaving Julia distressed and offended, and the count
provoked at the intrusion. He attempted to renew the subject, but
Julia hastily followed the steps of the marchioness, and entered the
castle. The scene she had witnessed, raised in the marchioness a tumult of
dreadful emotions. Love, hatred, and jealousy, raged by turns in her
heart, and defied all power of controul. Subjected to their alternate
violence, she experienced a misery more acute than any she had yet
known. Her imagination, invigorated by opposition, heightened to her
the graces of Hippolitus; her bosom glowed with more intense passion,
and her brain was at length exasperated almost to madness
. In Julia this sudden and unexpected interview excited a mingled
emotion of love and vexation, which did not soon subside. At length,
however, the delightful consciousness of Vereza's love bore her high
above every other sensation; again the scene more brightly glowed, and
again her fancy overcame the possibility of evil.
During the evening a tender and timid respect distinguished the
behaviour of the count towards Julia, who, contented with the
certainty of being loved, resolved to conceal her sentiments till an
explanation of his abrupt departure from Mazzini, and subsequent
absence, should have dissipated the shadow of mystery which hung over
this part of his conduct. She observed that the marchioness pursued
her with steady and constant observation, and she carefully avoided
affording the count an opportunity of renewing the subject of the
preceding interview, which, whenever he approached her, seemed to
tremble on his lips.
Night returned, and Ferdinand repaired to the chamber of Julia to
pursue his enquiry. Here he had not long remained, when the strange
and alarming sounds which had been heard on the preceding night were
repeated. The circumstance that now sunk in terror the minds of Emilia
and Julia, fired with new wonder that of Ferdinand, who seizing a
light, darted through the discovered door, and almost instantly
disappeared.
He descended into the same wild hall he had passed on the preceding
night. He had scarcely reached the bottom of the stair-case, when a
feeble light gleamed across the hall, and his eye caught the glimpse
of a figure retiring through the low arched door which led to the
south tower. He drew his sword and rushed on. A faint sound died away
along the passage, the windings of which prevented his seeing the
figure he pursued. Of this, indeed, he had obtained so slight a view,
that he scarcely knew whether it bore the impression of a human form.