Sinforosa reveals her love to Auristella.

The instant that the king heard of Auristella's illness, he sent his physicians to visit her. They discovered that her ailment proceeded more from the mind than the body. Arnoldo and Periander had partly guessed this, and Clodio better than anybody.

The physicians ordered that she should never be left alone, and that they should try and divert her mind with music, if she took pleasure in hearing it, or with any other cheerful amusement. Sinforosa took upon herself the care of the invalid, and bestowed her company upon her continually—a kindness which Auristella could willingly have excused, seeing that it was keeping the very cause of her illness always before her eyes. She could not expect a cure, because she was resolved not to tell what ailed her.

She was at length left alone in her apartment with only the two princesses; Sinforosa soon found an excuse to get rid of Polycarpa; and hardly did she see herself alone with Auristella, than embracing her, and pressing both her hands closely in her own, with deep and heavy sighs, she seemed as if she wished to translate her own soul into the body of Auristella, who was greatly disturbed by her emotion, and said, "What ails you, lady, what mean these signs of suffering; as if you, more than myself, required the aid of a physician? Tell me how I can help you, or serve you; for although my body is weak, my will is strong."

"Sweet friend, how much your offer gratifies me," answered Sinforosa, "and with the same readiness you show in obliging me, I will reply, without any affected politeness, or frigid compliments. My sister, for I must call you by that name whilst life endures, my sister! I am in love; very much in love; but shame, and being what I am, restrain my tongue. Must I die in silence? Is there any miracle that can cure my complaint?"

Sinforosa said all this, with so many sighs and tears that Auristella was moved to dry her eyes and embrace her, saying, "Do not die, O most afflicted lady, with thus constraining your tongue to silence. Cast away for a time shame and bashfulness, and confide your secret to me; for griefs communicated, if not healed, are at least alleviated; if, as I guess, your sorrows are those of love, well do I know that you are made of flesh and blood, although you look like alabaster; and as I also know that our hearts are formed to be restless, and that they cannot help loving those whom their stars have decreed they must love, whether they will or no. Tell me then, lady, who it is you love; for, as it is not probable that you have, like some in ancient story, taken a bull, or a shower of gold and silver for the object of your worship, it must needs be some man that you adore; and this will not cause either fear or amazement in me, for I am woman as you are, and have my own inclinations and feelings; and though they have never escaped from my lips for maiden shame, yet they might well have done so in the unconsciousness of fever. But the hour will come at last when all disguise must cease; and it may be that in my last will, you will learn the cause of my death."

Sinforosa kept looking at her all the while she spoke, and treasured every word she uttered as if it were an oracle.

"Ah, me! sweet lady," said she, "I believe that you were sent hither through such extraordinary ways, by Heaven itself, miraculously sent to this land to comfort and console me in my sorrows; and that you were out of the dark hold of the vessel restored to the light of day, to bring light to my darkened soul, and rescue it from the trouble it has been in; and so, not to keep you or myself longer in suspense, you shall know that to this island came your brother, Periander;" and then she detailed in regular succession the facts of his arrival, the triumphs and honours that he had won, and the difficulties he had conquered, as we have already described. She further told how the grace and beauty of Periander had awakened in her mind a sort of feeling that at first was not love, but simple kindness and admiration; how in time, with idleness and dwelling upon the subject, and accustoming herself to contemplate his graces, love began to represent him to her, not as a simple individual, but rather as a prince, that if he was not one, he deserved so to be. "This idea weighed upon my mind, and unthinkingly I suffered it to rest there, without making any resistance; and so by little and little I came to like him, to love him, and even to adore him as I h............