"This is a damnable and fearful fact!" muttered the latter, when Adelheid
had altogether ceased to speak.
"Did she say that Sigismund is the son of Balthazar, the public headsman
of the canton!" asked the father of his friend, in the way that one
reluctantly assures himself of some half-comprehended and unwelcome
truth,--"of Balthazar--of that family accursed!"
"Such is the parentage it hath been the will of God to bestow on the
preserver of our lives," meekly answered Adelheid.
"Hath the villain dared to steal into my family-circle, concealing this
disgusting and disgraceful fact!--Hath he endeavored to engraft the
impurity of his source on the untarnished stock of a noble and ancient
family! There is something exceeding mere duplicity in this, Signor
Grimaldi. There is a dark and meaning crime."
"There is that which much exceeds our means of remedying, good Melchior.
But let us not rashly blame the boy, whose birth is rather to be imputed
to him as a misfortune than as a crime. If he were a thousand Balthazars,
he has saved all our lives!"
"Thou sayest true--thou sayest no more than the truth.
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