“Ginevra may be cold,” she said, softly.

Piombo quivered.

“She may be hungry,” she continued.

The old man dropped a tear.

“Perhaps she has a child and cannot suckle it; her milk is dried up!” said the mother, in accents of despair.

“Let her come! let her come to me!” cried Piombo.  “Oh! my precious child, thou hast conquered me.”

The mother rose as if to fetch her daughter.  At that instant the door opened noisily, and a man, whose face no longer bore the semblance of humanity, stood suddenly before them.

“Dead!  Our two families were doomed to exterminate each other.  Here is all that remains of her,” he said, laying Ginevra’s long black hair upon the table.

The old people shook and quivered as if a stroke of lightning had blasted them.

Luigi no longer stood before them.

“He has spared me a shot, for he is dead,” said Bartolomeo, slowly, gazing on the ground at his feet.

ADDENDUM

The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy.

Bidault (known as Gigonnet)
  The Government Clerks
  Gobseck
  Cesar Birotteau
  The Firm of Nucingen
  A Daughter of Eve

Bonaparte, Napoleon
  The Gondreville Mystery
  Colonel Chabert
  Domestic Peace
  The Seamy Side of History
  A Woman of Thirty

Bonaparte, Lucien
  The Gondreville Mystery

Camusot de Marville, Madame
  Cesar Birotteau
  Jealousies of a Country Town
  Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life
  Cousin Pons

Magus, Elie
  A Marriage Settlement
  A Bachelor’s Establishment
  Pierre Grassou
  Cousin Pons

Murat, Joachim, Prince
  The Gondreville Mystery
  Colonel Chabert
  Domestic Peace
  The Country Doctor

Rapp
  The Gondreville Mystery

Roguin
  Cesar Birotteau
  Eugenie Grandet
  A Bachelor’s Establishment
  Pierrette

Thirion
  Cesar Birotteau
  Jealousies of a Country Town

Tiphaine, Madame
  Pierrette

Vergniaud, Louis
  Colonel Chabert