BY
BERNARD CAPES
AUTHOR OF
“A JAY OF ITALY,” “BAG AND BAGGAGE,” “JESSIE BAZLEY.”
LONDON
CONSTABLE & COMPANY LTD.
1913
For the attempt here made to endue with life and circumstance alittle tragic romance of the past, the motive is to be referred to arecently published book of memoirs, in whose pages is incidentallymade public for the first time the brief legend of which this is anamplification. The author hopes that he will not be thought to havedealt profanely with the spirit of a little tale, so old, so new, andyet so touching in its eternal simplicity.
XXIII. “In the Silent Woody Places”
XXVIII. A Posthumous Existence
“Fair Isabel: poor simple Isabel.”
It was a very hot day in Colorno, the petty Versailles of the Dukesof Parma. The little channels irrigating the plains all about, anddrawn every one from the near depleted basin of the small river whicha few miles northward ran into the Po, were spun as thin as silverwire. The effect from a di