Marco Visconti - chapter XXVI

by Tommaso Grossi

revised, edited and reworked by Gianfranco Maitilasso Grossi

A WAITING BRIDE

Lupo had had so many hairbreadth escapes in his life, his parents had so often been in anxiety for his sake, and they had so often felt the comfort of seeing him emerge from mortal peril safe and sound, that they might have become hardened by this time. But this was not the case. All their joy was dashed by the thought of poor Lauretta, of whom he could tell his parents nothing, nor they him.

Ermelinda and the Count made the falconer’s son repeat the minutest particulars of the strange adventures in which he had been involved; but the youth could give them small satisfaction. From the moment when he had left Beatrice at Gallarate, to go to Seprio in search of Ottorino, he knew nothing of the vanished party. He himself had been captured treacherously by some armed men before reaching the castle; his eyes were bandaged, and after being dragged hither and thither, he was at last thrown into the prison from which he had just been rescued by Tremacoldo.

Everything connected with the affair was mysterious; the only clue to it came from the incident of Marco’s letter, on receiving which Ottorino had hastened to Castel Seprio. It is true that the signature might have been forged by those who had contrived the plot against the bridal pair. Lupo was of this opinion, and the Count — who at the first mention of Marco’s name had been much perturbed — welcomed this explanation with avidity, with the determination of a person eager to catch at any reassuring suggestion.