Page:Hoffmann's Strange Stories - Hoffman - 1855.djvu/287

 heart was pained at the idea that Capuzzi, the brother of her father, abandoned by her, urged by grief towards the tomb, would curse her in his last moments. Antonio could not see the tears of his beloved without seeking anxiously some means of reconciliation with his strange relation. Salvator for a long time consoled them with the hope, that some fortunate circumstance would soon reunite them, when one morning Antonio rushed into the studio like a madman, crying out:—

"My friend, my guardian angel, what shall I do if you abandon me! Capuzzi has just arrived at Florence with an order for my arrest, as the ravisher of his niece!"

"But it is too late," said Salvator; "the Church, has it not blessed your marriage?"

"The Church itself cannot save me. The old devil has made his way to the pope; and he natters himself with being able to annul my marriage, and obtain a dispensation for his own."

"I recognize in this a vengeance from Rome! This poor pontiff is surrounded by flatterers who do everything to blind him; and because I figured in my satire Fortune their ignoble faces, under the features of animals that resembled them, not being able to injure me, their impotence leads them to attack me in the persons of my friends. That is the secret of the persecution which disturbs you. But calm yourself, re-assure yourself, Salvator remains devoted to you, and Signor Formica shall undertake again to rescue you in this affair! Return to Marianna, take to her from me friendly and consolatory words to sustain her courage, and peaceably await the issue of the plan which I am about to follow."

Antonio, subjected by the ascendancy of Salvator, obeyed without reply. The same day Pasquale Capuzzi received a ceremonious invitation in the name of the Academia de Percossi.

"Thank God!" exclaimed he, in an ecstacy of pride, "Florence is a wise city where every talent finds its place,