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Updated: June 4, 2025
"She is guilty!" thought the count within himself; and to subdue an abrupt explosion of his rage, until he had put the last and most certain test to his lady's faith, he walked twice up and down the room; then, feeling that he had recovered his powers of self-control, he said, "To-morrow, Giulia, is the reception day of his highness the duke, and I hope thou hast made suitable preparations to accompany me in the manner becoming the wife of the Count of Arestino."
The grand inquisitor, who is an intimate friend of the Count of Arestino, ministers well and faithfully to the infernal vengeance of that old Italian noble: for the remorseless judge urges on the torturers to apply the powers of the rack to the fullest extent; and while the creaking sound of wheels mingles with the cracking noise of dislocating limbs, the Count of Arestino exclaims, "I was once humane and benevolent, Giulia, but thy conduct has made me a fiend!"
Two ladies, in whom I feel a deep and sincere interest, and who were most unjustly imprisoned to suit the vindictive purposes of the Count of Arestino, have been delivered up to me: and ye have likewise agreed to make full and adequate atonement for the part which Florence enacted in the late contest between the Christians and Mussulmans in the Island of Rhodes.
The next moment the marquis was again powerless and secure in the grasp of the familiars but he had accomplished his purpose, he had avenged his mistress and himself and the old Lord of Arestino lay, with shattered skull, a corpse upon the cold pavement of the torture-chamber! "Back back with the murderer to his dungeon!" exclaimed the grand inquisitor, in a tone of fearful excitement and rage.
Yes, man demands that woman should dishonor herself for his sake; but he will not allow a speck to appear upon what he calls his good name no, not to save that poor, confiding, lost creature from the lowest depths and dregs of penury into which her frailty may have plunged her! Such is the selfishness of man! Where is his chivalry? But let us return to the Arestino Palace.
The Lord of Arestino was therefore resolved to act with the caution of a prudent man: but he was also prepared to avenge, in case of the worst, with the spirit of an Italian. He hurried round to the principal entrance of his palace, and gave some brief but energetic instructions to a faithful valet, who instantly departed to execute them.
"Will you permit this scandal to be discovered, and involve the Countess of Arestino myself ay, and yourself, old man, in danger, and perhaps ruin? Perhaps, did I say?
For, oh! upon that rack lay stretched the fair and half-naked form of Giulia of Arestino, its symmetry convulsing in matchless tortures, the bosom palpitating awfully with the pangs of that earthly hell, and the exquisitely-modeled limbs enduring all the hideous pains of dislocation, as if the fibers that held them in their sockets were drawn out to a tension at which they must inevitably snap in halves!
Know you not, dearest Flora, that fame reports not well of that same Giulia of Arestino and that a woman of tarnished reputation is no fitting associate for an innocent and artless maiden such as thou?"
This old man was the Count of Arestino, one of the mightiest nobles of the republic. Naturally his heart was good, and his disposition kind and generous but, then, he was an Italian and he was jealous! Need we say more to account for the change which had now taken place in his usually calm, tranquil, yet dignified, demeanor?
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