flashes of fire. No longer able to resist the impulse, forgetting alike
the paternal admonitions of the old painter, and the promises so sincerely
given, he quitted the piazza and hastened to the palace of his father, the
Proveditore Marcello, then absent on state affairs in the Levant.

Retiring to his own apartment, he fixed an easel with impetuous haste, and
by lamp-light again began to sketch the Medusa head of the old woman.
Yielding himself up to this new frenzy, he succeeded beyond his hopes; a
supernatural power seemed to guide his hand, and soon after midnight he
had drawn to the life not only the appalling head, but the commanding and
beautiful person, of the mysterious personage in the gondola. After gazing
awhile upon his work with triumphant delight, he retired to bed; but slept
not until long after sunrise, and then the extraordinary incidents of the
past day haunted his feverish dreams. A female form, youthful and of
surpassing beauty, hovered around his couch, but ever changing in
appearance. At first her head was invisible and veiled in mist, from which,
at intervals, flashed features of resplendent loveliness, and eyes of
heavenly blue, which beamed upon him with thrilling tenderness; and then
the mist dispersed, and the beauteous phantom stooped down to kiss his
cheek, when suddenly her blooming face darkened and withered into the
death-like visage of that fearful stranger, and her long bright hair was
converted into hissing sepents. Starting with a scream of horror from his
troubled and exhausting slumbers, he again sought refuge in his gondola,
but returned, alas! to make his sketch into a picture, which the hues of
life made still more hideous and repulsive. After several days thus
occupied, he sketched in various attitudes the imposing figure of the old
woman, and endeavoured to fit this beautiful Torso with a head not
unworthy of it. But herein, after many attempts, he failed. His excitement,
so long indulged, had risen into fever. His diseased fancy controlled his
pencil, and blended with features of the highest order of beauty so many