“Observe, Buonconte, as he dies, crosses his arms over his breast, pressing them together, partly in his pain, partly in prayer. His body thus lies by the river shore, as on a sepulchral monument, the arms folded into a cross. The rage of the river, under the influence of the evil demon, unlooses this cross , dashing the body supinely away, and rolling it over and over by bank and bottom. Nothing can be truer to the action of a stream in fury than these lines. And how desolate is it all! The lonely flight—the grisly wound, ‘pierced in the throat,’—the death, without help or pity—only the name of Mary on the lips—and the cross folded over the heart. Then the rage of the demon and the river—the noteless grave—and, at last, even she who had been most trusted forgetting him—
‘Giovanna nor none else have care for me.’
‘Giovanna nor none else have care for me.’