and with all the pomp due to their estate, both the children that had been placed under his protection; but on no account to disclose any other circumstance respecting them, than that the maiden was destined to become the new bride of the Marquis di Saluzzo.[1] The Count strictly fulfilled his brother's commission, and, upon a day appointed, set forth towards Saluzzo with his young charge and her brother, at that time only seven years of age; the former gorgeously arrayed, and attended by a numerous and honourable retinue.
Notwithstanding all this wicked usage, the Marquis determined still farther to prove utterly the courage and forbearance of his wife. I need not ask the women whether she had not given him sufficient proof of a virtuous love and steady devotion; but you will bear in mind that in the opening of my story I told you, when describing the faults in his character, 'that he was too prone to gratify the desires of the present moment, without regard to the
- ↑ The young reader is doubtless aware that in Italy females are disposed in marriage at an age when in this country they would scarcely have quitted the nursery.
