Ferdinand turned the key; the door unclosed, and, to their infinite
joy, discovered to them the grey dawn. 'Now, my love,' said
Hippolitus, 'you are safe, and I am happy.'--Immediately a loud voice
from without exclaimed, 'Take, villain, the reward of your perfidy!'
At the same instant Hippolitus received a sword in his body, and
uttering a deep sigh, fell to the ground. Julia shrieked and fainted;
Ferdinand drawing his sword, advanced towards the assassin, upon whose
countenance the light of his lamp then shone, and discovered to him
his father! The sword fell from his grasp, and he started back in an
agony of horror. He was instantly surrounded, and seized by the
servants of the marquis, while the marquis himself denounced vengeance
upon his head, and ordered him to be thrown into the dungeon of the
castle. At this instant the servants of the count, who were awaiting
his arrival on the seashore, hearing the tumult, hastened to the
scene, and there beheld their beloved master lifeless and weltering in
his blood.
They conveyed the bleeding body, with loud lamentations,
on board the vessel which had been prepared for him, and immediately
set sail for Italy. Julia, on recovering her senses, found herself in a small room, of
which she had no remembrance, with her maid weeping over her.
Recollection, when it returned, brought to her mind an energy of
grief, which exceeded even all former conceptions of sufferings. Yet
her misery was heightened by the intelligence which she now received.
She learned that Hippolitus had been borne away lifeless by his
people, that Ferdinand was confined in a dungeon by order of the
marquis, and that herself was a prisoner in a remote room, from which,
on the day after the morrow, she was to be removed to the chapel of
the castle, and there sacrificed to the ambition of her father, and
the absurd love of the Duke de Luovo.
This accumulation of evil subdued each power of resistance, and
reduced Julia to a state little short of distraction. No person was
allowed to approach her but her maid, and the servant who brought her
food. Emilia, who, though shocked by Julia's apparent want of
confidence, severely sympathized in her distress, solicited to see
her; but the pain of denial was so sharply aggravated by rebuke, that
she dared not again to urge the request.
In the mean time Ferdinand, involved in the gloom of a dungeon, was
resigned to the painful recollection of the past, and a horrid
anticipation of the future. From the resentment of the marquis, whose
passions were wild and terrible, and whose rank gave him an unlimited
power of life and death in his own territories, Ferdinand had much to
fear. Yet selfish apprehension soon yielded to a more noble sorrow.
He mourned the fate of Hippolitus, and the sufferings of Julia. He
could attribute the failure of their scheme only to the treachery of
Robert, who had, however, met the wishes of Ferdinand with strong
apparent sincerity, and generous interest in the cause of Julia. On
the night of the intended elopement, he had consigned the keys to
Ferdinand, who, immediately on receiving them, went to the apartment
of Hippolitus.