There could be little doubt that the body lying there
beneath the gateway, with the officials standing with awe-stricken
faces around it, together with the six peasants who had brought it
thither, was that of one or other of those two young women.
Of course there were plenty of persons at hand who were able to set
at rest all doubt as to the identity of the murdered woman,--for
such it was pretty clear she must be considered to be. And of course
all interests in the little provincial city were for many days to
come absorbed in the terrible interest belonging to the
investigation of the foul deed which had been done.
But in order to set before the reader the whole of this strange
story intelligibly, and to give him the same means of estimating the
probabilities of the questions involved in it, and of reaching a
solution of the mysterious circumstances which the authorities, who
were called upon to investigate them, were in possession of, it will
be expedient to go back to a period some four months previous to
that memorable Ash Wednesday.
It was a bitterly cold night in Ravenna, towards the latter end of
November, some four months before that Ash Wednesday on which the
events that have been narrated occurred. Untravelled English people,
who have heard much of "the sweet south," of the sunny skies of
Italy, and of its balmy atmosphere, do not readily imagine that such
cold is ever to be found in that favoured clime.
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