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"Thou canst not help thyself," he rejoined; "thou hast revealed to me the secret of this passage. I hasten to the camp. I return in an hour with an army, and wilt thou, wilt thou not, to-morrow's sun shall behold thee the partner of my throne!" Manto wore a poniard. She struck Benedetto to the heart, and he fell dead. She drew the corpse back into the passage, and hurried to her home.
An assembly met daily in quest of a remedy, but its members were forbidden to propose anything old, and were unable to invent anything new. "Why not consult Manto, the alchemist's daughter, our prophetess, our Sibyl?" the young Benedetto asked at last. "Why not?" repeated Eustachio, an elderly man. "Why not, indeed?" interrogated Leonardo, a man of mature years. All the speakers were noble.
He is the paviour of the high-street of Hades. But we cannot afford kings, and especially Gods, to be philosophers. The certainty of misrule is better than the chance of good government; uncertainty makes people restless. 'I feel very restless myself; I wish we were in Elysium! 'The river again narrows! exclaimed Manto. 'There is no other portal to pass.
But old and mighty walls now surround the spot which Manto found sterile and lonely in the heart of the swamp formed by the Mincio, no longer Benaco; and the dust of the witch is multitudinously hidden under the edifices of a city whose mighty domes, towers, and spires make its approach one of the stateliest in the world.
A sweet soft breeze touched the cheek of the entranced Proserpine, and a single star of silver light glittered in the rosy sky. ''Tis my favourite hour, exclaimed Proserpine..Thus have I gazed upon Hesperus in the meads of Enna! What a scene! How fortunate that we should have arrived at sunset! 'Ah, Madam! observed Manto, 'in Elysium the sky is ever thus.
As for myself, I never venture about after sunset. One grows romantic. Night was evidently made for in-door nature. I propose a rubber. To this popular suggestion Proserpine was pleased to accede, and herself and Tiresias, Manto and the captain of the yacht, were soon engaged at the proposed amusement. Tiresias loved a rubber.
One day the prophetess Manto, daughter of the soothsayer Tiresias, being instructed of the gods, called together the women of Thebes to do honor to the goddess Latona and her two children, Apollo and Diana. "Put laurel wreaths upon your heads," were her commands, "and bring sacrifices with pious prayers."
So perfectly did the costume suit the air and shape of the lady, that, as she stood among Mary's orange trees, it was like an illusion, of the fancy, but consternation took away all the charm from Mary's eyes. 'Tapada, she cried; 'you surely are not going out, tapada? 'Ah, you have found me out, cried Rosita. 'Yes, indeed I am! and I have the like saya y manto ready for you.
Benedetto was Manto's lover; Eustachio her father's friend; Leonardo his creditor. Their advice prevailed, and the three were chosen as a deputation to wait on the prophetess. Before proceeding formally on their embassy the three envoys managed to obtain private interviews, the two elder with Manto's father, the youth with Manto herself.
At length she said, in a strange, unnatural voice: "Put him into the Square Tower." "And now, mistress, what further? How to choose the new consuls?" "Ask me no more," she said. "I shall never prophesy again. Virtue has gone away from me." The leaders departed, to intrigue for the vacant posts, and devise tortures for Benedetto. Manto sat on the rampart, still and silent as its stones.
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