"
The lawyer paused a minute, as if some cause of perplexity had been
suggested to him by the words of the Marchese, before he replied,--
"There were, in truth, no marks of evident violence on the body, or,
at least, none such as an unskilled eye would observe on a very
superficial examination. But all that will be ascertained at the
medical examination, which will take place to-morrow morning. But I
think it can hardly be doubted that the death was not a natural
one," said the lawyer, shaking his head gravely.
"And the Marchese Ludovico?" asked the Marchese, rather strangely,
as it struck the lawyer, seeing that nothing had as yet been said to
connect the young Marchese with the catastrophe, and he was not
aware of the fact that the Marchese knew of his nephew's excursion
to the Pineta.
"That, alas! is the worst part of the bad story--we, at least, here
in Ravenna are perhaps excusable in thinking it the worst. The fact
is, Signor Marchese, that this death took place under circumstances
which seem to leave no doubt that the deed was done by the hand of
the Marchese Ludovico."
"The hand of the Marchese Ludovico! Gracious heaven! But that is
nonsense, Signor Fortini. No doubt? How can there be no doubt,
merely because he was with her in the forest?"
There was something in the Marchese's manner which made it seem to
the lawyer as if he must have already heard of the tragedy that had
happened, and of the suspicion that had been thrown on his nephew.
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