With the impulse of the pierced and loving heart, which divined all the agony inflicted, she sprang to Lucretia's side, she fell to the ground and clasped her knees.
"Do not heed, do not believe him; it is but the frenzy of a moment.

He spoke but to deceive me,--me, who loved him once! Mine alone, mine is the crime.

He knows all your worth.

Pity--pity--pity on yourself, on him, on me!" Lucretia's eyes fell with the glare of a fiend upon the imploring face lifted to her own.

Her lips moved, but no sound was audible.