The Duchess

My last Duchess – Ferrara

It was a beautiful house, it looked almost magical. I was excited about being there. I had heard many stories about this place. I decided to take a look myself and really getting to know the truth about these stories. It turned out to be exactly how I was told.

It all started one fine summer’s day. I had received a personal invitation from the Duke himself. He had heard of my interest in him and his “castle” and in his story. The day came and I was on my way. The duke greeted me in the hallway and said that now we were going on a small tour to see the whole house and then at the end we would end up in the attic, where he had his world-famous art collection, the one I was most interested to see, which the Duke obviously knew and therefore, he had put it as the last thing on the tour. Even though his famous art collection was up in the attic, he had one picture in the hall it was a very big and very beautiful picture. I was drawn to it in a way totally unexplainable, and I couldn’t really control myself. I just had to ask him. I addressed the Duke and asked him directly as to who was in the picture. Suddenly, I noticed a small change in the Duke’s eyes. It was as if my words, my question, touched something very dear to him, something that had been deeply hidden in his memory and by the sound of my voice and my question of who the woman in the picture was, finally found its way back into the Duke’s mind.

He pointed and told me the story, the story of a woman, his wife, the Duchess.

It was one of the most beautiful stories I have ever heard. The way the Duke spoke of the Duchess was filled with a lot of emotions. Through the whole tour of the house I became more and more aware of what happened to the Duchess and that I was about to realize that the stories I heard before entering this atmosphere was true. I left the house and as I was walking along the driveway towards the gate I stopped and looked back on the great Mansion. I stood there and for a moment I thought, ”He did it?!”