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266 operation was quick, yet not sudden — it produced no pain — it left on the form no grim convulsion, on the skin no purpling spot, to arouse suspicion — you might have cut and carved every membrane and fibre of the corpse, but the sharpest eyes of the leech would not have detected the presence of the subtle life-queller. Tor twelve hours the victim felt nothing save a joyous and elated exhilaration of the blood ; a delicious languor followed, the sure forerunner of apoplexy. No lancet then could save! Apoplexy had run much in the families of the enemies of the Visconti!

The hour of the feast arrived — the guests assembled. There were the flower of the Neapolitan seignorie, the descendants of the Norman, the Teuton, the Goth; for Naples had then a nobility, but derived it from the North, which has indeed been the Nutrix Leonum, the nurse of the lion-hearted chivalry of the world. Last of the guests came Zanoni; and the crowd gave way as the dazzhng foreigner moved along to the lord of the palace. The Prince greeted him with a meaning smile, to which Zanoni answered by a whisper — "He who plays with loaded dice does not always win."

The Prince bit his lip, and Zanoni, passing on, seemed deep in conversation with the fawning Mascari.

"Who is the Prince's heir?" asked the Guest.

" A distant relation on the mother's side; with his Excellency dies the male line."

"Is the heir present at our host's banquet?"

"No: they are not friends."