A Siren

A Siren

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Title: A Siren
Author: Thomas Adolphus Trollope
Release Date: February, 2004 [EBook #5179] [Yes, we are more than
one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on May 31,
2002]

Edition: 10
Language: English
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A SIREN
By Thomas Adolphus Trollope

CONTENTS
BOOK I Ash Wednesday Morning
CHAPTER I
The Last Night of Carnival II Apollo Vindex III St. Apollinare in
Classe IV Father Fabiano V "The Hours passed, and still she came not"
VI Gigia's Opinion VII An Attorney-at-Law in the Papal States VIII
Lost in the Forest IX "Passa la bella Donna e par che dorma"
BOOK II Four Mmonth Before That Ash Wednesday Morning
CHAPTER I
How the Good News came to Ravenna II The Marchese Lamberto di
Castelmare III The Impresario's Report IV Paolina Foscarelli V Rivalry

VI The Beginning of Trouble VII The Teaching of a Great Love VIII A
Change in the Situation IX Uncle and Nephew X The Coutessa
Violante XI The Cardinal's Reception, and the Marchese's Ball XII The
Arrival of the "Diva"
BOOK III "Sirenum Pocula"
CHAPTER I
"Diva Potens" II An Adopted Father and an Adopted Daughter III
"Armed at All Points" IV Throwing the Line V After-thoughts VI At
the Circolo VII Extremes Meet VIII The Diva shows her Cards IX One
Struggle more
BOOR IV The Last Days of the Carnival
CHAPTER I
In the Cardinal's Chapel II The Corso III "La Sonnambula" IV The
Marchese Lamberto's Correspondence V Bianca at Home VI Paolina at
Home VII Two Interviews VIII A Carnival Reception IX Paolina's
Return to the City
BOOK V Who Did The Deed?
CHAPTER I
At the City Gate II Suspicion III Guilty or Not Guilty? IV The
Marchese hears the Ill News V Doubts and Possibilities VI At the
Circolo again VII A Prison Visit VIII Signor Giovacchino Fortini at
Home IX The Post-Mortem Examination X Public Opinion XI In
Father Fabiano's Cell XII The Case against Paolina
BOOK VI Poena Pede Claudo
CHAPTER I
Signor Fortini receives the Signora Steno in his Studio II Was it

Paolina after all? III Could it have been the Aged Friar? IV What
Ravenna thought of it V "Miserrimus" VI The Trial VII The Friar's
Testimony VIII The Truth! IX Conclusion

A SIREN
By Thomas Adolphus Trollope

BOOK I
Ash Wednesday Morning
CHAPTER I
The Last Night of Carnival
It was Carnival time in the ancient and once imperial, but now
provincial and remote, city of Ravenna. It was Carnival time, and the
very acme and high-tide of that season of mirth and revel. For the
theory of Carnival observance is, that the life of it, unlike that of most
other things and beings, is intensified with a constantly crescendo
movement up to the last minutes of its existence. And there now
remained but an hour before midnight on the Tuesday preceding the
first day of Lent, Ash Wednesday--Dies Cinerum!--that sad and sober
morrow which has brought with it "sermons and soda-water" to so
many generations of revellers.
Of course Carnival, according to the Calendar and Time's hour-glass, is
over at twelve o'clock on the night of Shrove Tuesday. Generally,
however, in the pleasure-loving cities of Italy, a few hours' law are
allowed or winked at. The revellers are not supposed to become aware
that it is past midnight till about three or four in the morning.
Very generally the wind-up of the season of fun and frolic consists of
what is called a "Veglione," or "great making a night of it," which

means a masked ball at the theatre. And the great central chandelier
does not begin to descend into the body of the house, to have its lights
flapped out by the