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what a fearful punishment. If Countess Anna should betray Count Ammiani to-night, nothing, nothing will save me. I will confess. Let us both be beforehand with her-or you, it does not matter for a noble lady."

"Hush!" said Violetta. “What dreadful fool is this I sit with? You may have done what you think of doing already."

She walked to the staircase door, and to that of the suite. An honourable sentiment, conjoined to the knowledge that he had heard sufficient, induced Wilfrid to pass on into the sleeping apartment a moment or so before Violetta took this precaution. The potent liquor of Pericles had deprived him of consecutive ideas; he sat nursing a thunder in his head, imagining it to be profound thought, till Pericles flung the door open. Violetta and Irma had departed. "Behold! I have it; ze address of your rogue, Barto Rizzo," said Pericles, in the manner of one whose triumph is absolutely due to his own shrewdness. "Are two women a match for me? Now, my friend, you shall see. Barto Rizzo is too clever for zis government, which cannot catch him. I catch him, and I teach him he may touch politics, it is not for him to touch art. What! to hound men to interrupt her while she sings in public places? What next? But I knew my Countess d'Isorella could help me, and so I sent for her to confront Irma, and dare to say she knew not Barto's dwelling -and why? I will tell you a secret. A long-flattered woman, my friend, she has had, you will think, enough of it; no! she is like avarice. If it is worship of swine, she cannot refuse it. Barto Rizzo worships her; so it is a deduction-she knows his abode. I act upon that, and I arrive at my end. I now send him to ze devil."

Barto Rizzo, after having evaded the Polizia of the city during a three months' steady chase, was effectually captured on the doorstep of Vittoria's house in the Corso Francesco, by gendarmes whom Pericles had set on his track. A day later Vittoria was stabbed at about the same hour, on the same spot. A woman dealt the blow. Vittoria was returning from an afternoon drive with Laura Piaveni and the children. She saw a woman seated on the steps as beggarwomen sit, face in lap. Anxious to shield her from the lacquey, she sent the two little ones up to her with small bits of money. But, as the woman would not lift her head, she and Laura prepared to pass her, Laura coming last. The blow, like all such unexpected incidents, had the effect of lightning on those present; the woman might have escaped, but after she had struck she sat down impassive as a cat by the hearth, with a round-eyed stare.

The news that Vittoria had been assassinated traversed the city. Carlo was in Turin, Merthyr in Rome. Pericles was one of the first who reached the house; he was coming out when Wilfrid and the Duchess of Graätli drove up; and he accused the Countess d'Isorella flatly of having instigated the murder. He was frantic. They sup

The duchess

posed that she must have succumbed to the wound. sent for Laura. There was a press of carriages and soft-humming people in the street; many women and men sobbing. Wilfrid had to wait an hour for the duchess, who brought comfort when she came. Her first words were reassuring. "Ah!" she said, "did I not do

well to make you drive here with me instead of with Lena? Those eyes of yours would be unpardonable to her. Yes, indeed; though a corpse were lying in this house, Countess Alessandra is safe. have seen her. I have held her hand.”

Wilfrid kissed the duchess's hand passionately.

I

What she had said of Lena was true: Lena could only be generous upon the after-thought; and when the duchess drove Wilfrid back to her, he had to submit to hear scorn and indignation against all Italians, who were denounced as cut-throats, and worse and worse and worse, males and females alike. This was grounded on her sympathy for Vittoria. But Wilfrid now felt towards the Italians through his remembrance of that devoted soul's love of them, and with one direct look he bade his betrothed good-bye, and they parted.

It was in the early days of March that Merthyr, then among the Republicans of Rome, heard from Laura Piaveni. Two letters reached him, one telling of the attempted assassination, and a second explaining circumstances connected with it. The first summoned him to Milan; the other left it to his option to make the journey. He started, carrying kind messages from the Chief to Vittoria, and from Luciano Romara the offer of a renewal of old friendship to Count Ammiani. His political object was to persuade the Lombard youth to turn their whole strength upon Rome. The desire of his heart was again to see her, who had been so nearly lost to all eyes

for ever.

Laura's first letter stated brief facts. "She was stabbed this afternoon, at half-past two, on the steps of her house, by a woman called the wife of Barto Rizzo. She caught her hands up under her throat when she saw the dagger. Her right arm was penetrated just above the wrist, and half an inch in the left breast, close to the centre bone. She behaved firmly. The assassin only struck once. No visible danger; but you should come, if you have no serious work.”

'Happily," ran the subsequent letter, of two days' later date, "the assassin was a woman, and one effort exhausts a woman; she struck only once, and became idiotic. Sandra has no fever. She had her wits ready-where were mine?-when she received the wound. While I had her in my arms, she gave orders that the woman should be driven out of the city in her carriage. The Greek, her mad musical adorer, accuses Countess d'Isorella. returns convinced of her innocence. but we have one. It seems that Rizzo (Sandra was secret about it and about one or two other things) sent to her commanding her to

Carlo has seen this person

That is not an accepted proof;

appoint an hour-detestable style! I can see it now. I fear these conspiracies no longer :—she did appoint an hour; and was awaiting him when the gendarmes sprung on the man at her door.

He had evaded them several weeks, so we are to fancy that his wife charged Countess Alessandra with the betrayal. This appears a reasonable and simple way of accounting for the deed. So I only partly give credit to it. But it may be true.

"The wound has not produced a shock to her system-very, very fortunately. On the whole, a better thing could not have happened. Should I be more explicit? Yes, to you; for you are not of those who see too much in what is said. The wound, then, my dear good friend, has healed another wound, of which I knew nothing. Bergamasc and Brescian, friends of her husband's, have imagined that she interrupted or diverted his studies. He also discovered that she had an opinion of her own, and sometimes he consulted it; but alas! they are lovers, and he knew not when love listened, or she when love spoke; and there was grave business to be done meanwhile. Can you kindly allow that the case was open to a little confusion? I know that you will. He had to hear many violent reproaches from his fellow students. These have ceased. I send this letter on the chance of the first being lost on the road; and it will supplement the first pleasantly to you in any event. She lies here in the room where I write, propped on high pillows, the right arm bound up, and says: "Tell Merthyr I prayed to be in Rome with my husband, and him, and the Chief. Tell him I love my friend. Tell him I think he deserves to be in Rome. Tell him '- Enter Countess Ammiani to

reprove her for endangering the hopes of the house by fatiguing herself. Sandra sends a blush at me, and I smile, and the countess kisses her. I send you a literal transcript of one short scene, so that you may feel at home with us.

"There is a place called Venice, and there is a place called Rome, and both places are pretty places and famous places; and there is a thing called the fashion; and these pretty places and famous places set the fashion; and there is a place called Milan, and a place called Bergamo, and a place called Brescia, and they all want to follow the fashion, for they are giddy-pated baggages. What is the fashion, mamma? The fashion, my dear, is &c. &c. &c :-Extract of lecture to my little daughter Amalia, who says she forgets you; but Giacomo sends his manly love. Oh, good God! should I have blood in my lips when I kissed him, if I knew that he was old enough to go out with a sword in his hand a week hence? I seem every day to be growing more and more all mother. This mouth in front is full of thunder. Addio!"

When Merthyr stood in sight of Milan an army was issuing from the gates. GEORGE MEredith.

EUROPEAN TURKEY AND ITS SUBJECT RACES.

THE empire of the Turks in Europe is again tottering under one of those violent internal convulsions which during the last half-century have been of constant recurrence, and will undoubtedly, sooner or later, be the cause of its final overthrow. Indeed, if the enormous difficulties with which the sultans have had to contend are considered, one cannot but wonder that they should have succeeded in maintaining their rule in Europe so long. Encamped, as it were, in the midst of hostile nationalities entirely differing from them in race, in religion, and in language, the Turks could only retain their position by the superiority of their military and political organisation, which enabled them to hold in bondage their disorganised and less warlike neighbours. So long as their career was one of incessant conquest, this system proved tolerably successful. We hear of no Slavonian or Greek insurrections in the period which elapsed between the capture of Gallipoli by Prince Soliman in 1357, and that of Cyprus by Sultan Selim II., in 1571; the half-barbarous populations which then inhabited the country between the Danube and the Ægean peacefully accepted the rule of their conquerors, whom they had learnt to look upon as irresistible. When, however, the sultans were prevented by the growing power of the neighbouring states from making any further conquests, and were even compelled to abandon some of those of their predecessors, their Christian subjects began openly to show their discontent with the Ottoman rule, and it was found necessary to employ all the resources of the state to keep them in subjection. From this period dates the decline of the Ottoman Empire. Whether the time has now arrived for its fall, must depend on the course which events will take, and which it is at present impossible to foresee. It will be useful, however, to cast a glance at the internal policy of the Ottoman government, and the aspirations and prospects of the Christian races under its rule, in order to be enabled to appreciate the real importance and significance of these events as they arise.

It is known to most students of Turkish history that within the last five-and-twenty years the whole of the internal organisation of Turkey has been remodelled after the French pattern, in accordance with a plan first conceived by Sultan Selim III., and carried out by his successors. The precise nature and effect of these changes, however, have been greatly misunderstood in Western Europe. It was thought that the conversion of an oriental despotism into a bureaucratic system of government like that of France or Prussia could only be a change for the better, and there were not wanting sanguine

politicians, even up to a very recent period, who saw in this so-called reform the instrument of the regeneration of the Turkish empire. These dreams have now been dispelled, thanks to a succession of political and financial failures, which have proved the Turkish state to be more rotten than ever; but while all have been forced to acknowledge that the changes introduced by Sultan Mahmoud have only precipitated the ruin of the empire, this result seems to have been generally accepted without any attempt being made to explain it. The truth is, that the establishment of a European military and bureaucratic system in Turkey was nothing but a repetition of the old experiment so often tried in Europe of late, of introducing into a country institutions which are utterly incompatible with the habits, mode of thinking, and social life of its people. Nor was the system which it replaced, primitive and retrograde as it was, without its redeeming points. The power of the sultan was by no means so unlimited as is generally supposed; the initiative and direction of every measure and undertaking were, no doubt, together with the executive power, in his hands; yet he was bound, not only by the traditionary laws and customs of the country, but even more by the vigilant and jealous surveillance of his people, who, from the highest state dignitary to the poorest labourer, took a lively interest in political affairs. The more distant provinces and dependencies of the empire were ruled by men who had either been born or had passed the greater part of their lives among those whom they were appointed to govern; but even the decrees of these governors were not final, and were dependent on the sanction of the ulemas. Cases of course occurred of mismanagement and abuse of power, but well-founded complaints generally reached Constantinople, and there met with full and prompt redress. The law protected Christians and Mohammedans alike, and the Turks always guarded the former against any encroachment on the part of the latter. The government was, in fact, a patriarchal one, and the nation, while voluntarily placing all its rights in the hands of the sovereign, still exerted a sensible influence on the political action of the state.

It is obvious that such a system could only work well so long as the sultans possessed an amount of knowledge and energy corresponding to the extent of the powers confided to them. This, during the earlier years of the Ottoman rule, was actually the case; from their youth upwards the future sultans of Turkey were made to take part in political affairs, or else to acquire the necessary experience as governors of distant provinces, or commanders-in-chief of armies. Unfortunately the habits and manners of the Byzantine court spread gradually among the successors of the Greek emperors, and it at length became the custom to confine the heirs to the throne, from their infancy upwards, in the imperial harem, where

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