An
old fool! at his time of life, to offer marriage to such a woman as
La Bianca. To disgrace his name; to cover himself with ridicule; and
above all, and worst of all, to behave with such infamous injustice
to his nephew. Nevertheless the tragedy was so shocking and so
complete, that even those who were disposed to condemn his conduct
the most severely, could not but feel compassion for so crushing a
weight of misfortune.
As the opinion, however, began to gain ground in the city, that the
Marchesino Ludovico had, after all, not been the author of the
murder; that the first impression, however clearly the circumstances
seemed, at the first blush of the thing, to point to it, was a
mistaken one; and that the far more probable opinion was that the
Venetian girl, Paolina Foscarelli, was the murderess, and jealousy
the incentive to her crime, the compassion for the Marchese Lamberto
became proportionably less. The feeling was rather, that as far as
he was concerned he had got nothing worse than what he richly
deserved. And who should say that all was not upon the whole for the
best as it had pleased heaven to cause it to fall out? The Marchese
Lamberto was saved, despite his own folly, from a disgraceful and
degrading marriage; and Ludovico was saved from the ruin which
threatened him.
Nor, muttered the more cynical, was that all the good that was
involved in what, at first sight, seemed so great a misfortune.
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