More
of his time was probably passed there than in his native city. From
Venice the newly married couple proceeded to Rome, and it was not
till three or four years later, that the Marchese and Marchesa di
Castelmare, bringing with them their two boys Lamberto and Ludovico,
and their little Violante, the most exquisite little fairy that ever
was seen, returned to make the Marchese's ancestral palace,
ancestral city, their home.
There was one other stranger in Ravenna whose lamentations over the
fate that had ever brought him thither were as loud as they were
sincere. The poor old singing-master, Quinto Lalli, was left, by the
death of his adopted daughter, as destitute of the means of support
as desolate in his home and heart. He was not worth much; but it
would be unjust to suppose of him that his violent outcry on her
murderer was wholly or mainly prompted by the former consideration.
There had been a real and strong affection between him and his
adopted daughter, and her death in truth left him utterly desolate.
Yet he never again quitted the city he so much regretted having ever
seen. His comfortable support was adequately provided for by the
Marchese Ludovico. And often in after years--on summer evenings on a
stone bench beneath a fig-tree in the garden of the cottage provided
for him, and in winter at the chimney corner of its tiny parlour--
might be seen the tall spare nun-like figure of a grave and gentle
lady, earnestly labouring at the somewhat up-hill task of consoling
the old man, and striving to shape the teachings of his Bohemian
life to a better lesson than he was apt to draw from them.
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