On her side, Flora appeared to be astounded at the accusation made against her aunt and herself by the grand inquisitor.

"My lord," said Angelo Duras, "the very statement which has just been put forth by your eminence furnishes a new ground whereon I base my requisition for a delay of eight days, in order to prepare a fitting defense on behalf of the prisoners. The council of state is now sitting in deliberation on certain demands made by the newly arrived Ottoman envoy, and should your eminence refuse my requisition for a delay, it will be my duty forthwith to apply to that august body."

The grand inquisitor endeavored to reason with the advocate on the inconvenience of obstructing the business of the tribunal--but Angelo Duras, knowing that he had the law on his side, was firm; and the judge was finally compelled to accord the delay. Flora and her aunt were accordingly conveyed back each to her separate cell; while Angelo Duras retired, murmuring to himself, "I shall doubtless offend my brother by my conduct in this respect, after my solemn promise to him to abandon the cause of the Francatellis; but I prefer having obeyed that young man of G.o.dlike aspect and persuasive manner who visited me ere now to abjure me not to neglect my duty."

The next case that occupied the attention of the grand inquisitor on the present occasion was that of the Jew Isaachar ben Solomon. The old man was indeed a miserable spectacle. His garments hung loosely about his wasted and attenuated form--his countenance was wan and ghastly--but the fire of his eyes was not altogether quenched. He was heavily chained--and, as he walked between the two familiars who led him into the tribunal, he could scarcely drag himself along. For the persecuted old man had been confined for nearly seven months in the prison of the inquisition; and during that period he had suffered acutely with the damps of his dungeon--the wretched food doled out to him--and the anguish occasioned by conscious innocence unjustly accused of a dreadful crime.

"Jew," said the grand inquisitor, "when last thou wast examined by me, thou didst obstinately refuse to confess thy grievous sins. This is the day for the final investigation of thy case: and thou may'st produce witnesses in thy favor, if thou canst."

"My lord," replied Isaachar ben Solomon, in a weak and tremulous voice, "unless Heaven should work a miracle in my favor, I have no hope in this life. I do not fear death, my lord; for, persecuted, reviled, despised, accused as I am, I can yet lay my hand on my heart and say I have never injured a fellow-creature. But, my lord," he continued, his voice growing stronger with excitement, "it is sufficient that I am a Jew to insure my condemnation; and yet strange indeed is that Christian faith, or rather should I say, most inconsistent is the conduct of those who profess it, in so far as this ruthless persecution of my race is concerned. For where, my lord, is your charity, where is your tolerance, where is your mercy? If I be indeed involved in mental darkness, 'tis for you to enlighten me with argument, not coerce me with chains. Never have I insulted a Christian on account of his creed: wherefore should I be insulted in mine? Granting that the Jew is in error, he surely deserves pity, not persecution. For how came I by the creed which I profess? Even as your lordship obtained yours, which is that of Christian. Our parents reared us each in the belief which they respectively professed; and there is no more merit due to your eminence for being a Christian, than there is blame to be attached to me for being a Jew. Had all the religions of the earth been submitted to our consideration when we were children, and had it been said to each of us, 'Select a faith for yourself,' then there might be some merit in choosing the one most popular and the most a.s.suredly conducive to personal safety. But such was not the case, my lord; and I am a Jew for the same reason that you are a Christian--and I cling to the creed of my forefathers even as you adhere tenaciously to that faith which your ancestors have handed down to you. Reproach me not, then, because I am a Jew. And now I will pa.s.s to another subject, my lord," continued Isaachar, becoming more and more animated as he proceeded.

"I am accused of a fearful crime, of murder. The evidence rests upon the fact that stains of blood were observed upon the floor of a room in my house. The answer is simple. Two men--one of n.o.ble birth, the other a robber, fought in the room; and the blood of one of them flowed from a slight wound. This is the truth--and yet I know that I am not believed.

Merciful heavens! of what would you accuse me? Of murder!--and it was hinted, when last I stood before your eminence, that the Jews have been known to slay Christian children as an offering to Heaven. My lord, the Jews worship the same G.o.d as the Christians--for the Christians adopt that book in which the Jews put faith. Then I appeal to your eminence whether the G.o.d whom the Christians worship would delight in such sacrifices?--and as you must answer 'Nay,' the reply acquits the Jews also of the hideous calumny sought to be affixed upon us. The Jews, my lord, are a merciful and humane race. The records of your tribunals will prove that the Jews are not addicted to the shedding of blood. They are too patient--enduring--and resigned, to be given to vengeance. Behold how they cling to each other--how they a.s.sist each other in distress;--and charity is not narrowed to small circles, my lord, it is a sentiment which must become expansive, because it nourisheth itself and is cherished by those good feelings which are its only reward. Think you, my lord, that if I saw a fellow-creature starving in the street, I should wait to ask him whether he were a Christian, a Jew, or a Mussulman? Oh! no--no; the world's bread was given for men of all nations and all creeds!"

Isaachar would have continued his address to the grand inquisitor; but sheer exhaustion compelled him to desist--and he would have sunk upon the cold marble, had not the familiars supported him.

"By his own words is he convicted of disbelief in the most holy Catholic faith," said the grand inquisitor. "But I find, by a memorial which was addressed to me many mouths ago--indeed, very shortly after the arrest of this miserable unbeliever--and signed by Manuel Marquis of Orsini, that the said marquis hath important evidence to give on behalf of the Jew. Now, though Manuel d'Orsini be himself a prisoner of the holy office, yet as he hath not yet been judged, he is a competent witness."

Orders were then given to introduce the marquis; and Isaachar ben Solomon murmured to himself, "Is it possible that the young man can have felt sympathy for me? Ah, then I was not mistaken in him; in spite of his dissipation and his wildness he possesses a generous heart."

In a few minutes the Marquis of Orsini was led into the judgment-hall.

He was chained;--but he carried his head erect--and, though his countenance was pale and careworn, his spirit was not crushed. He bowed respectfully, but not cringingly, to the grand inquisitor, and bestowed a friendly nod of recognition upon the Jew.

"This memorial, dated in the month of March last, was signed by you?"

said the grand inquisitor interrogatively, as he displayed a paper to the marquis.

"That memorial was signed by me," answered Orsini, in a firm tone, "and I rejoice that your eminence has at length granted me an opportunity of explaining the matter hinted at therein. Your eminence sits there, it is presumed, to administer justice; then let justice be done toward this innocent man--albeit that he is a Jew--for solemnly do I declare that the blood which stained the floor in Isaachar's house flowed from my right arm. And it may not be amiss to observe," continued the marquis, "that the worthy Jew there did not only bind the wound for me with as much care as if I myself had been an Israelite, or he a Christian--but he moreover offered me the aid of his purse; and therefore am I under obligations to him which I can never wholly discharge. In good sooth, my lord," added Manuel, in whom neither a lengthened imprisonment nor the awful solemnity of the present scene could entirely subdue the flippancy which was habitual to his speech,--"in good sooth, my lord, he is a splendid specimen of a Jew--and I pray your eminence to discharge him forthwith."

"This levity ill becometh you, Manuel d'Orsini," said the grand inquisitor; "for you yourself are in terrible danger."

Then, upon a signal given, the familiars conveyed the marquis back to his dungeon: but ere he left the judgment-hall, he had the satisfaction of beholding the Jew's eyes fixed upon him with an expression of boundless grat.i.tude and deep sympathy. Tears, too, were trickling down the cheeks of the Israelite: for the old man thought within himself, "What matters it if the rack dislocate my limbs? But it is shocking--oh!

it is shocking to reflect that thy fellow-creatures, n.o.ble youth, shall dare to deface and injure that G.o.dlike form of thine!"

"Jew," suddenly exclaimed the grand inquisitor, "I put no faith in the testimony of the witness who has just appeared in thy favor. Confess thy sins--avow openly that thou hast murdered Christian children to obtain their blood for use in thy sacrifices--and seek forgiveness from Heaven by embracing the faith of Jesus!"

The unhappy Israelite was so appalled by the open, positive, and undisguised manner in which an atrocious charge was revived against him, that he lost all power of utterance, and stood stupefied and aghast.

"Away with him to the torture-chamber!" cried the grand inquisitor, in a stern and remorseless tone.

"Monster!" exclaimed the Jew, suddenly recovering his speech, as that dreadful mandate warned him that he would now require all his energy--all his presence of mind:--"monster!" he repeated, in a voice indicative of loathing and contempt;--"and thou art a Christian!"

The familiars hurried Isaachar away to the torture-chamber, which, as we before stated, opened upon the tribunal. And terrible, indeed, was the appearance of that earthly h.e.l.l--that terrestrial hades, invented by fiends in human shape--that den of horrors const.i.tuting, indeed, a fitting foretaste of trans-stygian torment! The grand inquisitor followed the victim and the familiars into this awful place: and, on a signal being given by that high functionary, Isaachar was stripped of all his upper clothing, and stretched on the accursed rack. Then commenced the torture--the agonizing torture by means of that infernal instrument, a torture which dislocated the limbs, appeared to tear the members asunder, and produced sensations as if all the nerves of the body were suddenly being drawn out through the brain.

"Dost thou confess? and wilt thou embrace the Christian faith?" demanded the grand inquisitor from time to time.

"I have nothing to confess--I will not renounce the creed of my forefathers!" answered Isaachar in a tone of bitter agony, as he writhed upon the rack, while every fresh shock and jerk of the infernal engine seemed as if it would tear the very life out of him. But the old man remained firm in the declaration of his innocence of the dreadful crime imputed to him: stanch also to his creed did he remain; and having endured the full extent of that special mode of torture, he was borne back to his dungeon, cruelly injured, with dislocated limbs, blood streaming from his mouth and nostrils, and these terrible words of the grand inquisitor ringing in his ears--"Obstinate and impenitent one, Satan claims thee as his own; therefore art thou condemned to death by fire at the approaching _auto de-fe_!"

Half an hour afterward another human being lay stretched upon that accursed rack, and agonizing--oh! most agonizing were the female shrieks and rending screams which emanated from the lips of the tortured victim, but which reached not beyond the solid masonry of those walls and the ma.s.sive iron-plated door. The white and polished arms were stretched out in a position fearfully painful beyond the victim's head, and the wrists were fastened to a steel bar by means of a thin cord, which cut through flesh, muscle and nerve to the very bone! The ankles were attached in a similar manner to a bar at the lower end of the rack, and thus from the female's hands and feet thick clots of gore fell on the stone pavement.

But even the blood flowed not so fast from her lacerated limbs as streamed the big drops of agony from her distorted countenance--that countenance erst so beautiful, and so well beloved by thee, Manuel d'Orsini! For, oh! upon that rack lay stretched the fair and half-naked form of Giulia of Arestino, its symmetry convulsing in matchless tortures, the bosom palpitating awfully with the pangs of that earthly h.e.l.l, and the exquisitely-modeled limbs enduring all the hideous pains of dislocation, as if the fibers that held them in their sockets were drawn out to a tension at which they must inevitably snap in halves!

But who gazes on that awful spectacle? whose ears drink in those agonizing screams, as if they made a delicious melody? With folded arms, compressed lips, and remorseless, though ashy pale countenance, the old Lord of Arestino stands near the rack; and if his eyes can for a moment quit that feast which they devour so greedily, it is but to glance with demoniac triumph toward Manuel d'Orsini, whom an atrocious refinement of cruelty, suggested by the vengeful count himself, has made a spectator of that appalling scene! And terrible are the emotions which rend the heart of the young marquis! But he is powerless--he cannot stretch forth a hand to save his mistress from the h.e.l.lish torments which she is enduring, nor can he even whisper a syllable to inspire her with courage to support them. For he is bound tightly--the familiars, too, have him in their iron grasp, and he is gagged! Nevertheless he can see, and he can hear; he can behold the rending tortures of the rack--and he is compelled to listen to the piercing screams which the victim sends forth. If he close his eyes upon the horrible spectacle, imagination instantly makes it more horrible even still; and, moreover, in the true spirit of a chivalrous heart, he seeks by the tenderness of his glances to impart at least a gleam of solace to the soul of her who has undergone so much, and is suffering now so much more, through her fatal love of him! The grand inquisitor, who is an intimate friend of the Count of Arestino, ministers well and faithfully to the infernal vengeance of that old Italian n.o.ble: for the remorseless judge urges on the torturers to apply the powers of the rack to the fullest extent; and while the creaking sound of wheels mingles with the cracking noise of dislocating limbs, the Count of Arestino exclaims, "I was once humane and benevolent, Giulia, but thy conduct has made me a fiend!"

"A fiend!" shrieked the tormented woman: "Oh! yes--yes--thou art a fiend--a very fiend--I have wronged thee--but this vengeance is horrible--mercy--mercy!--oh! for one drop of water--mercy--mercy!"

The rack gave the last shock of which its utmost power was capable--a scream more dreadful, more agonizing, more piercing than any of its predecessors, rent this time the very walls of the torture-chamber: and with this last outburst of mortal agony, the spirit of the guilty Giulia fled forever! Yet was not the vengeance of the Count of Arestino satisfied; and the grand inquisitor was prepared to gratify the h.e.l.lish sentiment to the fullest extent. The still warm and palpitating corpse of the countess was hastily removed from the rack: and the familiars stripped--nay, tore off the clothing of Manuel d'Orsini. The countenance of the young n.o.bleman was now terribly somber, as if the darkest thoughts were occupying his inmost soul, and his eyes were bent fixedly on the dreadful engine, to the tortures of which it appeared to be his turn to submit.

The familiars, in order to divest him of his garments, and also to stretch him in such a way on the rack that his arms might be fastened over his head to the upper end of that instrument, had removed the chains and cords which had hitherto bound him. And now the fatal moment seemed to be at hand, and the familiars already grasped him rudely to hurl him on the rack, when, as if suddenly inspired by a superhuman strength, the young n.o.bleman dashed the men from him; then, with lightning speed, he seized a ma.s.sive iron bar that was used to move the windla.s.s of the rack, and in another instant, before a saving arm could intervene, the deadly instrument struck down the Count of Arestino at the feet of the grand inquisitor, who started back with a cry of horror!

The next moment the marquis was again powerless and secure in the grasp of the familiars--but he had accomplished his purpose, he had avenged his mistress and himself--and the old Lord of Arestino lay, with shattered skull, a corpse upon the cold pavement of the torture-chamber!

"Back--back with the murderer to his dungeon!" exclaimed the grand inquisitor, in a tone of fearful excitement and rage. "We must not afford him a chance of dying upon that engine of torture. No--no: the lingering flames of the _auto-da-fe_ are reserved for the Marquis d'Orsini!"

And in pursuance of the sentence thus p.r.o.nounced, Manuel was hurried away to his dark and solitary cell, there to remain a prey to all the dreadful thoughts which the occurrences of that fatal evening were so well calculated to marshal in horrible array to his imagination.

CHAPTER LXI.

While those awful scenes were being enacted in the subterranes of the holy inquisition, Demetrius was actively engaged in directing those plans and effecting those arrangements which the scheming disposition of Nisida of Riverola had suggested. We should observe that in the morning he had sought and found Antonio, with whom he had so expertly managed that the villain had fallen completely into the snare spread to entrap him, and had not only confessed that he held at his disposal the liberty of the Count of Riverola, but had also agreed to deliver him up to the Greek. In a word, every thing in this respect took place precisely as Nisida had foreseen. Accordingly, so soon as it was dark in the evening, sixty of the Ottoman soldiers quitted by two and threes the mansion which the Florentine Government had appropriated as a dwelling for the envoy and his suit. The men whom Demetrius thus intrusted with the execution of his scheme, and whose energy and fidelity he had previously secured by means of liberal reward and promise of more, were disguised in different ways, but were all well armed. To be brief, so well were the various dispositions taken, and so effectually were they executed, that those sixty soldiers had concealed themselves in the grove indicated by their master, without having excited in the minds of the Florentine people the least suspicion that anything unusual was about to take place. It was close upon eleven o'clock at night, when Demetrius, after having obtained a hasty interview with Nisida, whom he acquainted with the progress of the plot, repaired to the grove wherein his men were already distributed, and took his station in the midst of the knot of olives on the right of the huge chestnut tree which overhung the chasm.

Nearly a quarter of an hour elapsed, and naught was heard save the waving of the branches and the rustling of the foliage, as the breeze of night agitated the grove; but at the expiration of that brief period, the sound of voices was suddenly heard close by the chestnut tree--not preceded by any footsteps nor other indication of the presence of men--and thus appearing as if they had all at once and in an instant emerged from the earth.

Not a moment had elapsed--no, not a moment--ere those individuals whose voices were thus abruptly heard, were captured and secured by a dozen Ottoman soldiers, who sprung upon them from the dense thickets around or dropped amongst them from the branches overhead--and so admirably was the swoop made, that five persons were seized, bound and held powerless and incapable of resistance ere the echo of the cry of alarm which they raised had died away in the maze of the grove. And simultaneously with the performance of this skillful maneuver, a shrill whistle was wafted from the lips of Demetrius through the wood, and as if by magic, a dozen torches were seen to light up and numbers of men, with naked scimiters gleaming in the rays of those firebrands, rushed toward the spot where the capture had been made. The effect of that sudden illumination--those flashing weapons--and that convergence of many warriors all toward the same point, was striking in the extreme, and as the glare of the torches shone on the countenances of the four men in the midst of whom was Francisco (the whole five, however, being held bound and powerless by the Ottoman soldiers), it was evident that the entire proceeding had inspired the guilty wretches with the most painful alarm. Demetrius instantly knew that the handsome and n.o.ble-looking young man in the midst of the group of captives and captors, must be Don Francisco of Riverola, and he also saw at a glance that one of the ruffians with him was Antonio. But he merely had leisure at the moment to address a word of rea.s.surance and friendship to Nisida's brother--for, lo! the secret of the entrance to the robbers' stronghold was revealed--discovered!

Yes--there, at the foot of the tree, and now rendered completely visible by the glare of the torch-light, was a small square aperture, from which the trap door had been raised to afford egress to the captured party.

"Secure that entrance!" cried Demetrius, hastily; "and hasten down those steps, some dozen of you, so as to guard it well!"--then, the instant this command was obeyed he turned toward Francisco, saying, "Lord of Riverola--am I right in thus addressing you?"

"Such is my name," answered Francisco; "and if you, brave chief, will but release me and lend me a sword, I will prove to thee that I have no particular affection for these miscreants."

Demetrius gave the necessary order--and in another moment the young Count of Riverola was not only free, but with a weapon in his hand. The Greek then made a rapid, but significant--fatally significant sign to his men; and--quick as thought,--the three robbers and their confederate Antonio were strangled by the bowstrings which the Ottomans whipped around their necks. A few stifled cries--and all was over! Thus perished the wretch Antonio--one of those treacherous, malignant, and avaricious Italians who bring dishonor on their n.o.ble nation,--a man who had sought to turn the vindictive feelings of the Count of Arestino to his own purposes, alike to fill his purse and to wreak his hateful spite on the Riverola family! Scarcely was the tragedy enacted, when Demetrius ordered the four bodies to be conveyed down the steps disclosed by the trap-door; "for," said he, "we will endeavor so to direct our proceedings that not a trace of them shall be left upon ground; as the Florentines would not be well-pleased if they learnt that foreign soldiers have undertaken the duties which they themselves should perform." Several of the Ottomans accordingly bore the dead bodies down the steps; and Demetrius, accompanied by Francisco, followed at the head of the greater portion of the troops, a sufficient number, however, remaining behind to const.i.tute a guard at the entrance of the stronghold.

While they were yet descending the stone stairs, Demetrius seized the opportunity of that temporary lull in the excitement of the night's adventures, to give Francisco hasty but welcome tidings of his sister; and the reader may suppose that the generous-hearted young count was overjoyed to learn that Nisida was not only alive, but also once more an inmate of the ancestral home. Demetrius said nothing relative to Flora; and Francisco, not dreaming for a moment that his deliverer even knew there was such a being in existence, asked no questions on that subject.

His anxiety was not, however, any less to fly to the cottage; for it must be remembered that he was arrested first, on the 3d of July, and had yet to learn all the afflictions which had fallen upon Flora and her aunt--afflictions of the existence whereof he had been kept in utter ignorance by the banditti during his long captivity of nearly three months in their stronghold. But while we are thus somewhat digressing, the invaders are penetrating further into the stronghold. Headed by Demetrius and Francisco, and all carrying their drawn scimiters in their hands, the corps proceeded along a vast vaulted subterrane, paved with flag-stones, until a huge iron door, studded with nails, barred the way.

"Stay!" whispered Francisco, suddenly recollecting himself, "I think I can devise a means to induce the rogues to open this portal, or I am much mistaken."

He accordingly seized a torch and hurried back to the foot of the stone-steps; in the immediate vicinity of which he searched narrowly for some object. At last he discovered the object of his investigation--namely a large bell hanging in a niche, and from which a strong wire ran up through the ground to the surface. This bell Francisco set ringing, and then hurried back to rejoin his deliverers.

Scarcely was he again by the side of Demetrius, when he saw that his stratagem had fully succeeded; for the iron door swung heavily round on its hinges--and in another moment the cries of terror which the two robber-sentinels raised on the inner side, were hushed forever by the Turkish scimiters. Down another flight of steps the invaders then precipitated themselves, another door, at the bottom, having been opened in compliance with the same signal which had led to the unfolding of the first--and now the alarm was given by the sentinels guarding the second post--those sentinels flying madly on, having beholden the immolation of their comrades. But Demetrius and Francisco speedily overtook them just as they emerged from another long vaulted and paved cavern-pa.s.sage, and were about to cross a plank which connected the two sides of a deep chasm in whose depths a rapid stream rushed gurgling on.

Into the turbid waters the two fugitive sentinels were cast: over the bridge poured the invaders, and into another caverned corridor, hollowed out of the solid rock, did they enter, the torch-bearers following immediately behind the Greek and the young count. It was evident that neither the cries of the surprised sentinels nor the tread of the invaders had alarmed the main corps of the banditti; for, on reaching a barrier formed by ma.s.sive folding doors, and knocking thereat, the portals instantly began to move on their hinges--and in rushed the Ottoman soldiers, headed by their two gallant Christian leaders. The robbers were in the midst of a deep carouse in their magnificent cavern-hall, when their festivity was thus rudely interrupted.

"We are betrayed!" thundered Lomellino, the captain of the horde; "to arms! to arms!"

But the invaders allowed them no time to concentrate themselves in a serried phalanx, and tremendous carnage ensued. Surprised and taken unaware as they were, the banditti fought as if a spell were upon them, paralyzing their energies and warning them that their last hour was come. The terrible scimiters of the Turks hewed them down in all directions; some, who sought to fly, were literally cut to pieces.

Lomellino fell beneath the sword of the gallant Count of Riverola; and within twenty minutes after the invaders first set foot in the banqueting hall, not a soul of the formidable horde was left alive!

Demetrius abandoned the plunder of the den to his troops; and when the portable part of the rich booty had been divided amongst them, they returned to their own grove, into which the entrance of the stronghold opened. When the subterrane was thus cleared of the living, and the dead alone remained in that place which had so long been their home, and was now their tomb, Demetrius ordered his forces to disperse and return to their quarters in Florence in the same prudent manner which had characterized their egress thence a few hours before. Francisco and Demetrius, being left alone together in the grove, proceeded by torchlight to close the trap-door, which they found to consist of a thick plate of iron covered with earth, so prepared, by glutinous substances no doubt, that it was hard as rock; and thus, when the trap was shut down, not even a close inspection would lead to a suspicion of its existence, so admirably did it fit into its setting and correspond with the soil all around.