When they had undressed her to apply restoratives a small, rough
crucifix had been taken from the folds of her robe near her heart; it
had belonged to Santa Beata Tagliapietra,--that devoted daughter of the
Church,--and the Lady Beata herself had given the precious heirloom out
of the treasures of the chapel of their house to her beloved Lady
Marina. Possibly she reflected, with a shudder, as she laid the relic on
the altar of the oratory of the palazzo Giustiniani, that the
remembrance of the constant dangers of Santa Beata had incited the Lady
Marina thus to peril her life. Of the long nights of vigil on the floor
of the oratory and of many other austerities which had filled those last
sad days since the quarrel with Rome had begun, the Lady Beata was
forced to give faithful account to the physicians who were summoned in
immediate consultation to the bedchamber of the Lady Marina. These
practices and the horror upon which she had dwelt ceaselessly would
sufficiently account for her condition, said the learned Professor
Santorio; and if she could but forget it there might be hope; meanwhile,
let her memory lie dormant--at present nothing must be done to rouse
her.
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