An enemy is indeed at hand.

I see it through the heavy air; I hear it through the silence: the Ghostly One,--the Destroyer, the PESTILENCE! Ah, seest thou how the leaves swarm with insects, only by an effort visible to the eye.

They follow the breath of the plague!" As he spoke, a bird fell from the boughs at Viola's feet; it fluttered, it writhed an instant, and was dead.
"Oh, Viola!" cried Zanoni, passionately, "that is death.

Dost thou not fear to die ?" "To leave thee?
Ah, yes!" "And if I could teach thee how Death may be defied; if I could arrest for thy youth the course of time; if I could--" He paused abruptly, for Viola's eyes spoke only terror; her cheek and lips were pale.
"Speak not thus,--look not thus," she said, recoiling from him.

"You dismay me.