'What has he done?' She hesitated a good while, then she said:
'He killed my husband.' 'Good heavens!' I cried, 'and you receive him!'
Do you know what she said? She said, '_Che voule_?'"
"Is that all?" asked Stanmer.
"No; she went on to say that Camerino had killed Count Salvi in a duel,
and she admitted that her husband's jealousy had been the occasion of it.
The Count, it appeared, was a monster of jealousy--he had led her a
dreadful life. He himself, meanwhile, had been anything but
irreproachable; he had done a mortal injury to a man of whom he pretended
to be a friend, and this affair had become notorious. The gentleman in
question had demanded satisfaction for his outraged honour; but for some
reason or other (the Countess, to do her justice, did not tell me that
her husband was a coward), he had not as yet obtained it. The duel with
Camerino had come on first; in an access of jealous fury the Count had
struck Camerino in the face; and this outrage, I know not how justly, was
deemed expiable before the other. By an extraordinary arrangement (the
Italians have certainly no sense of fair play) the other man was allowed
to be Camerino's second. The duel was fought with swords, and the Count
received a wound of which, though at first it was not expected to be
fatal, he died on the following day.
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