"Then," said Constance, "get up quickly, and let us go in search of him directly, for the cords which bind lovers do not allow of their going away very far from the beloved one. Come, we shall quickly find him. Soon you will see him, and yet sooner you will satisfy him; you will forget the scruples with which you have been surrounded, and give Periander your hand as his espoused wife, thereby putting an end to all calumny and evil report." Auristella rose up, and accompanied by Felicia Flora, Constance and Antonio, went out in search of Periander. They who now knew her to be a princess, looked upon her with redoubled reverence, and treated her with more respect. Periander, meanwhile, whom they were seeking, had tried to go far away from all who might go in search of him. He left Rome on foot, and alone--unless his utter disconsolateness and his sorrow may be considered as company. His melancholy thoughts and ever varying imaginations never left him. "Alas!" said he to himself, "Most beautiful Sigismunda, queen by nature and beautiful by the bounteous gift of the same Nature, superhumanly prudent, and surpassingly charming! little did it cost thee to consider me as a brother, since never in word or thought did I belie the name--not even malice itself could affirm that I did. If it be thy wish to go to heaven alone in thy maiden pride, without dependence upon any other but thy God and thyself, do so, in God's name! Yet I warn thee--think not that thou wilt be sinless, or that thou canst act thus without being guilty of my death. Thou hast left me, lady, loaded and oppressed with the weight of silence, and thy falseness! Wherefore didst thou not declare this earlier, when it would not have been tearing my heart from my body to give up my love for thee? It was all thine: I gave up to thee my entire will, and thou hast cast me out. Rest in peace, my beloved, and know that all I can do I have done, in leaving thee." Night came on, and diverging a little from the high road, which was that which led to Naples, he heard the murmuring sound of a stream which ran amongst some trees, and throwing himself down upon its margin, he ceased his complaints, but his sighs and tears were ceaseless. [Illustration] CHAPTER XII. _Wherein it is related who Periander and Auristella are._ Good and evil seem to be so inseparable, that like two lines which form an angle, although they spring from different beginnings, yet both end in the same point.