CHAPTER IX
Conclusion
Little more need be added to complete this story of a great singer's
Carnival engagement, and the consequences that arose out of it.
The consternation, the talk, the moralizings, of the little city may
be readily imagined.
Of course the written statement left by the unhappy Marchese made
all further judicial inquiry unnecessary. When the hand of a
mightier power than that of any earthly judge struck him down before
the eyes of all that world whose good opinion he had valued so
highly, in the manner that has been related, the tribunal, of
course, declared the business before it to be suspended. The result
made it needless ever to resume the sitting. No retarded evidence
against the Marchese had been given in court--no record of any
accusation against him remained in the archives of it: and this was
deemed to be a great point among a people who do not, by any means,
hold that the law is the same "de non apparentibus et de non
existentibus."
Of course there was no further obstacle to the marriage, in due
time, of Ludovico and Paolina. A proper interval had, of course, to
be allowed to elapse before the knot was definitively tied; but it
was settled, and known to be settled by all Ravenna, and the strange
and moving circumstances which had attended the young Marchese's
fortunes had the effect of causing his marriage with the Venetian
artist to be accepted by the "Society" more tolerantly than,
perhaps, might otherwise have been the case.
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