With his eyes darkly gleaming, and in a deep severe tone, which contrasted strangely with the mirthful levity of the party, Sir Otto replied, “I am indeed unable to perceive how the most ingenious listener could find aught to approve in the character or conduct of such a knight or lady. If you had inquired of me which of the two was the more base, abominable, devilish, and depraved, I might indeed have more readily provided myself with an answer, although even then the choice would have been difficult. Fy on it! That renowned warrior had raised up a vain coquette to a situation such as she never deserved, had shared with her his house and fortune, placed his honour and happiness in her hands, hoping that the late evening of his life might still be cheered by gleams of confidence, fidelity, and love! Then, lo! the wretched creature forfeits all the reward and praise which she might have obtained for virtue and dignified demeanour, by encouraging a libertine paramour! Shame, shame! That idle and despicable young fellow, who, for himself, would never have won any wreath of fame, had succeeded in gaining the friendly notice and society of a renowned hero, at which any generous and honest heart would have been proud and rejoiced; and this friendship he only uses for his own base purposes, in order to lay his snares with more effect. Then he hires, forsooth, bravoes and assassins; wherefore should he not as well have tried poison? At last the brave old man performs that exploit in earnest, of which he had made a base and cowardly pretence; uses, perhaps for the last time, his already honoured and victorious sword in the service of that deceitful poltron, who, instead of sinking into the earth with shame----but forgive me, noble sir, I have not temper nor patience to speak farther, and have already dwelt too long on a subject so hateful!” Every one in the banquet-hall was now silent, and on every cheek glowed a deep blush of self-reproach, from which even the count Alessandro de Vinciguerra was not exempted. He said, however,--“This noble stranger has judged the characters of my story rather too severely. In the light in which he has placed them, they may indeed deserve all the censure which he has so freely bestowed; but in our glowing climate beyond the Alps, the inhabitants, both men and women, are, by nature, differently framed and disposed from the quiet people of his cold native land; and, methinks, the same moderation and virtue cannot be demanded of us.” “This were to affirm then,” said Sir Otto, “that right and wrong depended on the nearness or distance of the sun; but I well know, that the inhabitants beyond the Alps would as unwillingly incur the risk of eternal malediction as those of any other country; and that the road which your story instructs us to travel leads but to the realms of the devil there cannot be any doubt.”