nice the morning began to appear, and he thought it best to betake himself to rest, as he dreaded the worst consequences from a second visit to the dutchess.
What confirmed him in those apprehensions was the account which the duke had given him on the road, relative to what had happened in the great square of St. Mark.
The count reflected on the circumstance of its being a person in the regimentals of an officer who gave the duke information at his being at the palace, and concluded that it must have-have been one of the same who so unmercifully beat the dutchess some weeks before. He also began to imagine, that it must be the same person who gave the first alarm by a runaway-knock. He never heard, that the lady had any other lover, yet such a thing was very possible.
The next day the proceedings against the two reconciled friends were quashed by the interference of the duke's powerful friends, and the fête at the villa was celebrated with the most pompous splendor.
