her talents were extraordinary, appear to be a male.  The salaries of women, to begin with, were high and out of the reach of poor companies of players; and secondly, as I have said in the text, some States, such as the Roman, forbade the appearance of women upon the scene.  Women’s parts, therefore, would be taken by castrati, or boys, whose sex it was necessary for a woman to assume.  There was another reason which, I fondly believe, induced Belviso to adopt that name and appearance.  A woman appearing as such must be morally ruined.  I never heard of an exception to the rule.  Belviso’s real name was Geronima Sastre, and she was a native of the Trentino.—­F.  A. S.] I looked up at my beloved—­now at last my entirely beloved—­wife.  Bare as she was, her neck bare of covering, her finger of the ring, she was my wife before God and the angels.  I rose and faced her, she met my looks without flinching, in her eyes was no shame.  The child lay sleeping in her shawl.

My heart beat high.  I lifted up my face to the sky and laughed aloud.  “O God, O God, Thou hast redeemed me!” I cried.  Then to Virginia I said, “This child of thine——­”

“It is thine,” said Virginia.

My arms embraced both mother and babe, but with a hand I took her by the chin.  She turned her face to me, and with her clear eyes searched my face.  “It is ours,” she said, and blushed.

“And I am yours, my Virginia,” I said, and stooped to her.  Our lips met and stayed together.  We kissed long, drinking the joy of one another.  The Fool would err no more.

CHAPTER XLVIII

THE LAST

Here
Belviso
lies
who died to save his friend

Under this superscription we consigned to the dust the dust of our dear benefactor; and that reverently done, we settled ourselves in Lucca, where we have remained ever since, where I have written these pages, where I intend to live and die.  Of my true marriage with my beloved, expect no raptures in this place, seek no further, ask no more.  This is holy ground.  In all these years wherein she has been spared to be my well of bliss, my fountain of nourishment, my stem of solace, I declare with my hand on my heart, never for one moment did she cease to be my loving, willing, chaste and discerning wife.  We have been poor, for I renounced my inheritance in favour of my next brother, retaining nothing of it, and began the world again where I left it when I was driven from Lucca by misfortunes; and by industry and thrift we have risen to a competence enough to educate our children according to the degree marked out by their birth.  I did this deliberately, having found out by hard experience that money was the bondslave of lust, and rank the breastplate of inanity.  Had I taken my wife to England I must have retained my wretched panoply; but England also I renounced, and that also deliberately.  I shall take leave to close my relation with a few words upon my choice of life.