Of course that terrible event continued more than ever to occupy the
attention of all Ravenna, almost to the exclusion of every other
topic of conversation. It was very easy to understand the nature of
the motive, which might be supposed to have led Paolina to do the
deed. And when it became known farther, that the means by which the
death of the victim had been brought about were such as might easily
have been accomplished by the weakest woman's hand; and that it had
been discovered that Paolina had been in the Pineta--for such was
the not quite accurate form which the report assumed just about the
time when the crime must have been committed, the general opinion
inclined very much to the notion that she, the stranger from Venice,
was, indeed, the assassin.
Precedents were hunted up, and many a story told of women who had
done equally desperate deeds under similar provocation.
"I feel very little doubt of it, myself," said Manutoli; "there is
nothing improbable in such a solution, while it is in the highest
degree improbable that Ludovico should have raised his hand against
a sleeping woman, enticed by him in the forest for the purpose. Bah!
It is monstrous."
"He would have been more to be pitied than blamed if he had done
it," said another of the young men, who did not bear himself a
reputation of the most brilliant sort; "if I had a rich uncle I
swear by all the saints, that I would not let the prettiest woman
that ever made a fool of a man, come between me an my inheritance.
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