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gallery-chamber.” |
“What Giant is this, my Lord?” said the Marquis; “is your castle haunted |
by giants and goblins?” |
“Lord! what, has not your Greatness heard the story of the Giant in the |
gallery-chamber?” cried Bianca. “I marvel his Highness has not told you; |
mayhap you do not know there is a prophecy—” |
“This trifling is intolerable,” interrupted Manfred. “Let us dismiss |
this silly wench, my Lord! we have more important affairs to discuss.” |
“By your favour,” said Frederic, “these are no trifles. The enormous |
sabre I was directed to in the wood, yon casque, its fellow—are these |
visions of this poor maiden’s brain?” |
“So Jaquez thinks, may it please your Greatness,” said Bianca. “He says |
this moon will not be out without our seeing some strange revolution. |
For my part, I should not be surprised if it was to happen to-morrow; |
for, as I was saying, when I heard the clattering of armour, I was all in |
a cold sweat. I looked up, and, if your Greatness will believe me, I saw |
upon the uppermost banister of the great stairs a hand in armour as big |
as big. I thought I should have swooned. I never stopped until I came |
hither—would I were well out of this castle. My Lady Matilda told me but |
yester-morning that her Highness Hippolita knows something.” |
“Thou art an insolent!” cried Manfred. “Lord Marquis, it much misgives |
me that this scene is concerted to affront me. Are my own domestics |
suborned to spread tales injurious to my honour? Pursue your claim by |
manly daring; or let us bury our feuds, as was proposed, by the |
intermarriage of our children. But trust me, it ill becomes a Prince of |
your bearing to practise on mercenary wenches.” |
“I scorn your imputation,” said Frederic. “Until this hour I never set |
eyes on this damsel: I have given her no jewel. My Lord, my Lord, your |
conscience, your guilt accuses you, and would throw the suspicion on me; |
but keep your daughter, and think no more of Isabella. The judgments |
already fallen on your house forbid me matching into it.” |
Manfred, alarmed at the resolute tone in which Frederic delivered these |
words, endeavoured to pacify him. Dismissing Bianca, he made such |
submissions to the Marquis, and threw in such artful encomiums on |
Matilda, that Frederic was once more staggered. However, as his passion |
was of so recent a date, it could not at once surmount the scruples he |
had conceived. He had gathered enough from Bianca’s discourse to |
persuade him that heaven declared itself against Manfred. The proposed |
marriages too removed his claim to a distance; and the principality of |
Otranto was a stronger temptation than the contingent reversion of it |
with Matilda. Still he would not absolutely recede from his engagements; |
but purposing to gain time, he demanded of Manfred if it was true in fact |
that Hippolita consented to the divorce. The Prince, transported to find |
no other obstacle, and depending on his influence over his wife, assured |
the Marquis it was so, and that he might satisfy himself of the truth |
from her own mouth. |
As they were thus discoursing, word was brought that the banquet was |
prepared. Manfred conducted Frederic to the great hall, where they were |
received by Hippolita and the young Princesses. Manfred placed the |
Marquis next to Matilda, and seated himself between his wife and |
Isabella. Hippolita comported herself with an easy gravity; but the |
young ladies were silent and melancholy. Manfred, who was determined to |
pursue his point with the Marquis in the remainder of the evening, pushed |
on the feast until it waxed late; affecting unrestrained gaiety, and |
plying Frederic with repeated goblets of wine. The latter, more upon his |
guard than Manfred wished, declined his frequent challenges, on pretence |
of his late loss of blood; while the Prince, to raise his own disordered |
spirits, and to counterfeit unconcern, indulged himself in plentiful |
draughts, though not to the intoxication of his senses. |
The evening being far advanced, the banquet concluded. Manfred would |
have withdrawn with Frederic; but the latter pleading weakness and want |
of repose, retired to his chamber, gallantly telling the Prince that his |
daughter should amuse his Highness until himself could attend him. |
Manfred accepted the party, and to the no small grief of Isabella, |
accompanied her to her apartment. Matilda waited on her mother to enjoy |
the freshness of the evening on the ramparts of the castle. |
Soon as the company were dispersed their several ways, Frederic, quitting |
his chamber, inquired if Hippolita was alone, and was told by one of her |
attendants, who had not noticed her going forth, that at that hour she |
generally withdrew to her oratory, where he probably would find her. The |
Marquis, during the repast, had beheld Matilda with increase of passion. |
He now wished to find Hippolita in the disposition her Lord had promised. |
The portents that had alarmed him were forgotten in his desires. |
Stealing softly and unobserved to the apartment of Hippolita, he entered |
it with a resolution to encourage her acquiescence to the divorce, having |
perceived that Manfred was resolved to make the possession of Isabella an |
unalterable condition, before he would grant Matilda to his wishes. |
The Marquis was not surprised at the silence that reigned in the |
Princess’s apartment. Concluding her, as he had been advertised, in her |
oratory, he passed on. The door was ajar; the evening gloomy and |
overcast. Pushing open the door gently, he saw a person kneeling before |
the altar. As he approached nearer, it seemed not a woman, but one in a |
long woollen weed, whose back was towards him. The person seemed |
absorbed in prayer. The Marquis was about to return, when the figure, |
rising, stood some moments fixed in meditation, without regarding him. |
The Marquis, expecting the holy person to come forth, and meaning to |
excuse his uncivil interruption, said, |