"Signor, I do not see how this atrocious act of villany, committed on the persons of an unprotected widow and her family, could possibly have been investigated without my presence, when I am one of the principal witnesses to bear testimony to the entire transaction. The assembling of the people together is only the natural consequence of such an act, and as a testimony of the interest they feel in the sorrow of the Signora Avellinni, and the horror caused by the death of her boy."

"You are prejudging the matter, Signor," exclaimed the commissary, "and giving the affair a very different appearance from the version I have heard. However, we shall listen to the story of the member of our force who effected the first arrest of the prisoners. Prosecutor, stand forward, and give me an account of this affair."

The order was immediately complied with, and the leader of the three ruffians, who had caused the death of the boy, with his face bound up, and his arm in a sling, for the purpose of making his injuries appear greater than they were, stood forward to comply with the command of his superior.

"So, Leichenstein," exclaimed the commissary, who appeared well acquainted with the ruffian, "it is to your tender mercies the prisoners are indebted for their arrest ?"

"Yes, illustrissimo Signor," answered the ruffian, with a grim smile; "I have done good service to the state by arresting them, for, Signor, you will now find out the whole history of a conspiracy I am sure was concocting at their house, when I and my two comrades who were with me, disturbed them."

"A conspiracy, Leichenstein! We must examine this minutely, for there is more in it than I thought of. Tell me the particulars of the case."

"As I was traversing the country last evening, Signor, seeing that all was quiet, I approached near the cottage of the prisoners. As I came near, 1 heard a voice singing a song, and was startled, on listening attentively, by the words which breathed nothing but treason against the government, and threats against the person of our Emperor."

"What was the song, Leichenstein?" "I am sure I cannot tell, Signor, for I never had a fancy for music; but I am sure the song was full of re

Volutionary treason. Oh! thought I, I am just come across a band of conspirators, and with that I consulted with my comrades. Our first thought was of going for more assistance, but hearing little noise, we decided it was better to enter the cottage at once, and see what was going on, for fear they would have time to escape. With that I knocked at the door, and while waiting for it to be opened, we heard a shuffling of feet, as if people were trying to hide themselves."

Very likely, Leichenstein; go on. You are generally sharp enough in these matters."

"Oh, trust me, Signor; I never leave them much chance of escaping my hands. The instant the door was opened by a little boy, I rushed in, and found the two prisoners there. The youngest one was burning a piece of paper, which she held in her hand, and she seemed quite frightened at my ap pearance."

"Have you got the paper? No doubt it contained some treasonable matter."

"No, Signor, she was too quick for me, it was nearly burnt before I had time to enter. I thought it better to arrest them at once, and a hard resistance they made. I searched the cottage in every part, but could find nobody, and all my threats would not make them tell me in what corner the other persons whom I had heard running away had secreted themselves. I had scarcely got the prisoners outside, and was thinking what was best to do, when I saw the cottage had caught fire, and a person, whom I recognised afterwards as the Signor Porro, came out of it, followed by two or three others, who made their escape."

"Why did you not arrest them? You are much to blame for not doing so."

"I was trying to do so, when the Signor Porro told several peasants who had collected on the spot, to take away our arms and hold us fast while the other persons got away. In doing so, the little boy of the elder prisoner was killed on the spot in the scuffle."

"And this is what you call an atrocious act, Signor Porro, in resisting the legal authority of the government officers ?"

"I deny, Signor, the truth of this fellow's statement, and the instant he has concluded I will demand your per

that, seeing they were too many for us, we thought it better to leave, and come to the city, to tell your illustrissimo the whole transaction.'

"You did right, Leichenstein, and acted with your usual prudence."

66

Signor," exclaimed Porro, addressing the commissary, and with difficulty suppressing his anger, "will you per

mit me to ask the comrades of this fellow, who can tell so plausible a tale, a few questions, and I will soon confound him in the falsehoods he has uttered."

"I cannot permit anything of the sort, Signor Porro, however willing I might be to oblige you. The evidence of this worthy and diligent member of our force is sufficiently clear and explicit to require no other testimony to prove the truth of his assertions. Every day I find the people are becoming more and more unruly; and it is high time the officers of government should put aside their leniency, assert the strong arm of the law, and put down those revolutionary tendencies so dangerous to the peace of society."

"How can it be expected a people will remain calm spectators if they are to see their roofs burnt before their eyes, and their children butchered, without provocation? I am prepared with evidence to show a murder has been committed, and not only was I present nearly the whole of the time that the facts he has deposed to occurred, and which the fellow has knowingly falsified, but there were also present the Baron Pinaldi and a number of other reputable witnesses.”

Take care, Signor-take care; you are implicating yourself. You do admit being present in the cottage when Leichenstein arrived ? "

"I admit nothing of the sort. It is true the fellow saw me come out

of the cottage, as he saw me enter it, to save the poor innocent girl before you from the flames this fellow's brutality had condemned her to; but I deny emphatically being in the cottage when he arrived."

"Is there any back entrance to the cottage, Leichenstein; and did you see the Signor Porro enter it after you had left it?"

"There is no back entrance, illustrissimo; and I will swear Signor Porro never entered it after I had left."

"Liar!" exclaimed the Baron Pinaldi, giving loose to the indignation he felt. Have you no shame and no fear for your eternal salvation?"

"Signor Baron Pinaldi, if you attempt to intimidate the witness, I will order you into custody. I cannot permit a perversion of justice. Perhaps you were in the cottage at the time, and among the persons who escaped."

I was neither in the cottage nor near it until a few minutes before it took fire; and I am not a person accustomed to have my word doubted, ' answered the baron, while a smile of supreme contempt curled his haughty lip.

"Then am I to understand neither my testimony nor that of the Baron Pinaldi will be received?" demanded Porro of the commissary.

"Most decidedly not," responded the commissary; "you being among the accused, and the Baron Pinaldi among the list of the suspected, all I can permit-and I am exceeding my strict duty is to allow you to make any observation you think fit."

"I then protest, Signor, in the name of common humanity, against my evidence being rejected; and I will appeal to the highest tribunal, the Court of the Emperor, to see whether this act of atrocious brutality is to be passed over without just punishment. I accuse the prosecutor, and I desire my words to be taken down, of wilfully committing perjury to screen his own guilt. I furthermore accuse him of setting fire to the Signora Avellinni's cottage; of endeavouring, by fastening her daughter's door and binding her to a bedstead, to prevent her escape from a horrid death, and lastly, in the presence of a number of witnesses, who are here ready to offer their testimony, of murdering her son without the slight

est provocation. This, and more, Signor, I am ready to prove on oath." "Your appeal to another tribunal, Signor, will not terrify me from performing my duty. I act upon instructions; and your accusation against a tried member of our force, is without proof."

"Signor, you are but playing with my words. How can I prove my assertions when you refuse to accept the evidence of competent witnesses ?”

"To receive the evidence of persons taking part in resisting the authority of government, and insulting and maltreating its officers, is a direct violation of the law. I have but a duty to perform, and although a painful one, it may be, especially where you take an interest in the accused, Signor Porro, yet it must be discharged. Signora and Signorina Avellinni, you are, upon the evidence of one of our officers, found guilty of singing treasonable songs, and suspected of harbouring suspicious persons in your residence; you are, therefore, condemned to a year's solitary confinement. The sentence would have been much more severe was it not in consequence of the interest taken in your behalf, and because I believe you have been led to commit these crimes without reflecting on the punishment which is sure to follow the committal of such heinous offences. Leichenstein, have the prisoners removed, and carefully guarded by a sufficient force to their place of confinement."

"You condemn, then, the Signora Avellinni and her daughter without allowing them to utter a word in their own vindication. Remember, Signor, they are not without friends."

"I am satisfied of their guilt, and it is useless to continue a painful scene which has lasted too long. My time is of more value than hearing speeches, which would avail nothing in my decision."

"Farewell, Signor, the hour will come when the innocent shall be avenged. I have learnt, the first day I have seen my native town for many a month, a bitter lesson-justice is impossible for the weak and unprotected."

"And I, Signor, only regret it will be my duty to report your words to a

higher quarter," answered the commissary, with a sinister smile.

Vouchsafing no answer to this implied threat, Porro turned to say a few words of comfort, if language could bring any, to his nurse and her daughter

my

"Be assured Teresa," he exclaimed, speaking to her in words which fell pleasingly on the ear, and calling her by her Christian name, "I will never rest until I see you, dear nurse, and kind sister, as I have often called your daughter, liberated from the prison you are so unjustly condemned to. Think others with far greater troubles are suffering still greater punishments than yours; and the God in whom we trust will as surely bring down on the head of the villain who has robbed you of present happiness, a terrible punishment."

Tears were the only answer he obtained; and with a heart full of bitterness and indignation, he turned from the hall. Descending the staircase, followed by his friends, and passing before the body of troops drawn up in the court, he appeared in the street. His presence was the signal for a thousand "Vivas !" His mournful countenance, however, and stern looks, so different from his usual smiles, soon silenced the warm greetings, and told the fate of Signora Avellinni and her daughter. A person near Porro inquired of one of his friends what had become of them, and soon the words "They are condemned to a year's solitary confinement," spread from lip to lip. Then arose from an hundred voices the vent of long-suppressed feelings, and shouts of "La Vendetta! La Vendetta!" echoed through the streets, and were carried in startling notes to the ears of the magistrate. The ebullition of popular feeling wanted but a voice to direct it to the Throne of Vengeance !

For a moment Porro gazed with conflicting feelings on the crowd, and then uttering a few words to those around him, they dispersed in every direction, trying to ally the popular tumult. Short was the struggle, but they were successful; the love for his family prevailed, and the crowd dispersed on every side; but still was borne to the ear, uttered by some straggler, the words "La Vendetta!"ominous sound of the coming storm!

On the evening of the day of the condemnation of the Signora Avellinni and her daughter, in a handsomely furnished room, in the Palazzo Porro, were seated two individuals—the Baron Pinaldi and the young heir of the family honours. The latter had evidently been writing, for the pen was still in his hand, as he placed before the former a letter he had just concluded.

"Read it, caro Pinaldi, and sec whether you approve of what I have stated. You will perceive I have but told the simple facts of the case, and offered a few comments on the excitement naturally created by such a crime passing without due punishment on the perpetrators of the outrage."

Glancing his eyes rapidly over the contents, he returned the letter to Porro, exclaiming at the same time

"It is useless, my young friend— your labours will be all in vain. A decision made by a commissary was never known to be revoked, however unjust it may have been, so long as the victims were Italians. Cease, therefore, I repeat-your efforts are fruitless. The only hope for Signora Avellinni and her daughter, is, to look forward to the period when they will see again the face of heaven-and that will never be until their punishment is completed."

"Never be ! I tell you, Baron, their punishment will never last a fortnight.

"Not last a fortnight! Why, caro amico, if you accomplish such a miracle, I shall believe you have the magic wand of the sorceress, whom I read of when a child, who turned all into gold."

an

"I can neither perform a miracle, nor have I such a wand; but I can tell you what I possess, Baron: arm that can strike, and a voice that, if it speaks, will arouse here, on the territorial possessions of our family, five hundred kindred souls, to break asunder the chains forged by an iniquitous proceeding."

"Have a care, Porro, lest you find, in your hot zeal, a dungeon for yourself."

66

There is scarcely any fear, Baron; for either my appeal to Marshal Radetsky, or the one to the Emperor, is certain of success."

"Well, your mind is an elastic one, to cling to a broken reed. Rather turn it to the contemplation of reality than let it rest on a slippery foundation."

"The reality! where does it exist? To me everything is uncertain. But a few days ago, and I left the gay capital of France, with feelings unclouded by a single care-all was bright and full of joy. To-day, how different! My mind filled with doubt, and thoughts I cannot fathom; I would express them, yet cannot do so. Tell me, dear Baron, you who are full of the world's experience, what means this sudden change this uncertainty will?"

"It is the spring from youth to manhood the bitter lesson we learn when, for the first time, we find the world is not what we have fondly dreamt. When, instead of endless joys, a path strewed with flowers of love, misery, care, and cruelty, rise before the heart's fountain, dashing away the hopes of years, and leaving behind memory_as our only friend and consoler. Thus, Porro, was it with you. You left your land with but the reminiscences of friendship and happiness-too young or too heedless to notice the showers, and you have returned with riper age to find all is not gold that glitters.' The dream of youth is dispelled, the work of manhood must begin."

"Come when it will, I am prepared, after last night's work and this morning's, for all. Even now, with my first bitter lesson scarcely past, I almost think my thoughts have wandered too far from home, too far from the claims my country demands at the hands of her sons. Be it my task now to

make up for the forgetfulness I have shown."

"You have shown none, Porro, and you are accusing yourself unjustly. It was last evening I endeavoured to rouse in your heart the love of country, the feelings which must sooner or later evince themselves either in favour of freedom or leagued with despotism; but I little thought at the time, while doing so, of the deed you were so soon to be a spectator of, and which would require no art or statement of mine to call them into immediate action. In this I see the hand of Providence. Yesterday my words fell coldly upon your ears; your native scenes were not sufficient to make your heart's blood move with indignation at the tyranny of Austrian's thraldom. This night you require no prompting from me to tell you what is the duty, the sacred duty, the heir of the princely house of Porro owes to himself and to his country. If you wish me to speak plainer to point out that duty in clearer terms, to utter the ideas which have filled my mind, and the mind of others - I will do so; ay, even if it be to show you how the liberation of your nurse and her daughter can be accomplished with safety to yourself and your father."

"Speak to me, Baron. Point out how my nurse's freedom can be accomplished; for bear this outrage I will not, even if I sacrifice half of my fortune in effecting her liberation."

"Listen, then. You observe, if you cast your glance attentively over the face of society in Europe, there have been two opposing interests at work for years past - the one, Progression, the other its opposite-Absolutism. The first has been gradually and silently creeping along, almost unseen and unknown heard of, but not felt; seen, but not understood. The other bas reared itself in the face of all, boldly and without scruple-its very boldness constituting its extraordinary success; but yet, with it, an overweening confidence in an inward power that does not really belong to it. For the first, if properly conducted, there is certain success for the latter, if no retrogression take place, sure destruction. With these opposing elements there are to be found two spirits also antagonisticthe one, Catholicity; the other, Protestantism. Catholicity assuming a

grasping and universal dominion, permitting no opposition to its will, and asserting the world to be its veritable empire Protestantism, giving to every person a will of his own, and leaguing itself with Progression. The last is essentially the friend to changethe former opposed to any innovation whatever. Fighting their battles principally in England, Germany, and in Switzerland, hitherto, they have at length sat down in Italy to contend for supremacy. Absolutism, with Catholicity, are now triumphant here; it should be our task. the effort of

Italy-to separate them."

"But how is this to be effected? To me the way appears so beset with difficulties, that to achieve it by peaceable means seems an impossibility."

"Not by peaceable means: you are so far right, Porro, for force is the only way open to success. These contending elements-these impersonations of two spirits, the Evil and the Good are now at our doors. We want to divide the body and the spirit from the former, so that the grave can receive the dust, the judgment, the wreck! To accomplish this, we must analyse well the feelings and position. of our class the wishes and hopes of the people. Through every change, we shall find the Italian nobility retaining one peculiar feature of their class the inherent pride of birth. Of this I shall speak presently. Exactions, contentions, and their own vices, have rendered them the ghost of their former selves. The power of the Colonna, the Visconti, and the Orsini, no longer exists but as a tale of history. Yet, impoverished as they are, and reduced in strength, they form no contemptible body, if they could be united for one purpose. The Lombardo-Venetian nobility, treated with contumely by the proud Autocrat of Austria, would listen with complacency to any plan of action which might offer to them the hope of amelioration; and their pride, properly worked upon, would act as a safeguard, and conduct even to rebellion. To arm them, however, there is wanted the voice of the leader. The timid, the irresolute, the indolent require the example, the deep bray of the hound, to follow the chase."

"And where is this leader to be found?" asked Porro.

"The people," continued the Baron,