Picciola : $b The prisoner of Fenestrella or, captivity captiveSaintine, X.-B. (Xavier-Boniface)
General
Picciola : $b The prisoner of Fenestrella or, captivity captive
Saintine, X.-B. (Xavier-Boniface)
Prisoners -- Fiction
The fly-catcher, who occasionally made his appearance at his grated
window, seemed to take delight in watching the assiduities of Charney
towards his favourite! He had observed the Count compose his cement,
weave his osier-work—erect his palisades; and, admonished by his own long
captivity of the moral influence of such pursuits, readily conjectured
that a whole system of philosophy was developing itself in the mind of
his fellow-prisoner.
One memorable day, a new face made its appearance at the window—a female
face—fair, and fresh, and young. The stranger was a girl, whose demeanour
appeared at once timid and lively; modesty regulated the movements of
her well-turned head, and the brilliancy of her animated eyes, whose
glances were veiled by long silken eyelashes of raven darkness. As she
stood behind the heavy grating, on which her fair hand bent for support,
her brow inclining in the shade as if in a meditative mood, she might
have stood for a chaste personification of the nymph Captivity. But when
her brow was uplifted, and the joyous light of day fell on her lovely
countenance, the harmony and serenity of her features, her delicate but
brilliant complexion, proclaimed that it was in the free air of liberty
she had been nurtured, not under the dispiriting influence of the bolts
and bars of a dungeon. She was, perhaps, one of those tutelary angels of
charity, whose lives are passed in soothing the sick and solacing the
captive?—No!—the instinct which brought the fair stranger to Fenestrella
was still more puissant—even that of filial duty. Only daughter to
Girardi the fly-catcher—Teresa had abandoned the gay promenades and
festivities of Turin, and the banks of the Doria-Riparia, to inhabit
the cheerless town of Fenestrella, not that her residence near the
fortress afforded free access to her father: for some time she found it
impossible to obtain even a momentary interview with the prisoner. But
to breathe the same air with him—and think of him nearer to herself, was
some solace to her affliction. This was her first time of admittance
into the long-interdicted citadel; and such is the origin of the delight
which Charney sees beaming in her eyes, and the colour which he observes
mantling on her cheek. Restored to the arms of her father, Teresa Girardi
has indeed a right to look gay, and glad, and lovely!
It was a sentiment of curiosity which attracted her to the window; a
feeling of interest soon attaches her to the spot. The noble prisoner and
his occupation excite her attention; but finding herself noticed in her
turn, she tries to recede from observation, as if convicted of unbecoming
boldness. Teresa has nothing to fear! The Count de Charney, engrossed by
Picciola and her flower-bud, has not a thought to throw away on any rival
beauty!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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