"It is the Lady Lucia, my lord," answered the physician.
"And there was none else?" asked the Duke in a low tremulous whisper.
"I saw no other, my lord."
"But I saw her," said the Duke. "I saw her even as I saw her last, when she lay on her bed and they took the child out of her dead arms."
"It was the weakness of your malady, my lord, that made the vision before your eyes."
"Alas, was it no more?" moaned the Duke. "Indeed, I am very weak; there is a blur before my eyes. I cannot see who this lady is that kneels before me. Who is she, and what ails her?" And having said this in fretful weary tones, he lay back on his pillow gasping.
Then the Master of the Household came forward and said to him, "My lord, this is the Lady Lucia, and she kneels before your Highness praying for the life of Count Antonio, because she loves him."
Now the name of Count Antonio, when spoken to him, moved the Duke more than all the ministrations of his physician; he roused himself once again, crying, "Antonio! I had forgotten Antonio. Does he still live?"
"Your Highness has not given the signal for his death."
"Have I not? Then here——"