"Dearest Nisida," said the young countess, "no justification is needed--no apology is required in reference to that subject; for your kind words, your altered manner toward me now, your recognition of me as a sister, made so by union with your brother--oh! this would efface from my mind wrongs ten thousand times more terrible than any injury which I have sustained at your hands. But," continued Flora, in a slow and gentle tone, "if you wish to explain the nature of these instructions which you received from the lips of your dying parent, let not my presence embarra.s.s you."

"Yes, I do wish to render my explanation as complete as possible, dearest Flora," replied Nisida; "for if I have acted severely toward you, it was not to gratify any natural love of cruelty, nor any mean jealousy or spite; on the contrary, the motives were engendered by that imperious necessity which has swayed my conduct, modeled my disposition, and regulated my mind ever since that fatal day when I knelt beside my mother's death-bed, and swore to obey her last words. For thus did she speak, Flora--'Nisida, there is one more subject relative to which I must advise you, and in respect to which you must swear to obey me. My own life furnished a sad and terrible lesson of the impropriety of contracting an unequal marriage. All my woes--all my sorrows--all the dreadful events which have occurred--may be traced to the one great fact that the Count of Riverola espoused a person of whose family he was ashamed. Nisida,' she continued, her voice becoming fainter and fainter, 'watch you narrowly and closely over the welfare of Francisco in this respect. Let him not marry beneath him; let him not unite himself to one whose family contains a single member deserving obloquy or reproach.

Above all, see that he marries not till he shall have reached an age when he will be capable of examining his own heart through the medium of experience and matured judgment. If you see him form a boyish attachment of which you have good and sufficient reason to disapprove, exert yourself to wean him from it: hesitate not to thwart him; be not moved by the sorrows he may manifest at the moment; you will be acting for his welfare; and the time will speedily come when he will rejoice that you have rescued him from the danger of contracting a hasty, rash, and ill-a.s.sorted marriage.' These were the last instructions of our mother, Francisco; and I swore to obey them. Hence my sorrow, my fears, my anger when I became aware of the attachment subsisting between yourself, dear brother, and you, my sweet Flora: and that sorrow was enhanced--those fears were augmented--that danger was increased, Flora, when I learnt that your brother Alessandro had renounced the creed of the true G.o.d, and that your family thereby contained a member deserving of obloquy and reproach. But that sorrow, those fears, and that anger have now departed from my soul. I recognize the finger of Heaven--the will of the Almighty in the accomplishment of your union, despite of all my projects, all my intrigues to prevent it. I am satisfied, moreover, that there is in this alliance a fitness and a propriety which will insure your happiness: and may the spirit of my sainted mother look down from the empyrean palace where she dwells, and bless you both, even as I now implore the divine mercy to shed its beauties and diffuse its protecting influence around you."

Nisida had raised herself up to a sitting posture as she uttered this invocation so sublimely interesting and solemnly sincere; and the youthful pair, simultaneously yielding to the same impulse, sank upon their knees to receive the blessing of one who had never bestowed a blessing on mortal being until then! She extended her hands above those two beautiful, bending heads: and her voice, as she adjured Heaven to protect them, was plaintively earnest and tremulously clear, and its musical sound seemed to touch the finest chord of sympathy, devotion, and love that vibrated in the hearts of that youthful n.o.ble and his virgin bride. When this solemn ceremony was accomplished, an immense weight appeared to have been removed from the soul of the Lady Nisida of Riverola; and her countenance wore a calm and sweet expression, which formed a happy contrast with the sovereign hauteur and grand contempt that were wont to mark it.

"I have now but little more to say in explanation of my past conduct,"

she resumed, after a long pause. "You can readily divine wherefore I affected the loss of those most glorious faculties which G.o.d has given me. I became enthusiastic in my resolves to carry out the injunctions of my dear and much-loved mother; and while I lay upon a bed of sickness--a severe illness produced by anguish and horror at all I had heard from her lips, and by her death, so premature and sad--I pondered a thousand schemes, the object of which was to accomplish the great aims I had in view. I foresaw that I--a weak woman--then, indeed, a mere girl of fifteen--should have to const.i.tute myself the protectress of a brother who was hated by his own father; and I feared lest that hatred should drive him to the adoption of some dreadful plot to rid himself of your presence, Francisco--perhaps even to deprive you of your life. I knew that I must watch all his movements and listen to all his conversations with those unprincipled wretches who are ever ready to do the bidding of the powerful and the wealthy. But how was all this to be accomplished?--how was I to become a watcher and a listener--a spy ever active, and an eavesdropper ever awake--without exciting suspicions which would lead to the frustration of my designs, and perhaps involve both myself and my brother in ruin? Then was it that an idea struck me like a flash of lightning; and like a flash of lightning was it terrible and appalling, when breaking on the dark chaos of my thoughts. At first I shrank from it--recoiled from it in horror and dismay;--but the more I considered it--the longer I looked that idea in the face--the more I contemplated it, the less formidable did it seem. I have already said that I was enthusiastic and devoted in my resolves to carry out the dying injunctions of my mother:--and thus by degrees I learnt to reflect upon the awful sacrifice which had suggested itself to my imagination as a species of holy and necessary self-martyrdom. I foresaw that if I affected the loss of hearing and speech, I should obtain all the advantages I sought and all the means I required to enable me to act as the protectress of my brother against the hatred of my father. I believed also that I should not only be considered as unfit to be made the heiress of the t.i.tle and fortune of the Riverola family, but that our father, Francisco, would see the absolute necessity of treating you in all respects as his lawful and legitimate son, in spite of any suspicions which he might entertain relative to your birth. There were many other motives which influenced me, and which arose out of the injunctions of our mother,--motives which you can well understand, and which I need not detail. Thus it was that, subduing the grief which the idea of making so tremendous a sacrifice excited, on the one hand--and arming myself with the exultation of a martyr, on the other,--thus it was that I resolved to simulate the character of the deaf and dumb. It was, however, necessary to obtain the collusion of Dr. Duras; and this aim I carried after many hours of argument and persuasion. He was then ignorant--and still is ignorant--of the real motives which had prompted me to this self-martyrdom;--but I led him to believe that the gravest and most important family interests required that moral immolation of my own happiness;--and I vowed that unless he would consent to aid me, it was my firm resolve to shut myself up in a convent and take the veil.

This threat, which I had not the least design of carrying into effect, induced him to yield a reluctant acquiescence with my project: for he loved me as if I had been his child. He was moreover consoled somewhat by the a.s.surance which I gave him, and in which I myself felt implicit confidence at the time, that the necessity for the simulation of deafness and dumbness on my part would cease the moment my father should be no more. In a word, the kind Dr. Duras promised to act entirely in accordance with my wishes; and I accordingly became Nisida the deaf and dumb!"

"Merciful heavens! that immeasurable sacrifice was made for me!" cried Francisco, throwing himself into the arms of his sister and imprinting a thousand kisses on her cheeks.

"Yes--for your sake and in order to carry out the dying commands of our mother, the sainted Vitangela?" responded Nisida. "I shall not weary you with a description of the feelings and emotions with which I commenced that long career of duplicity; by the very success that attended the part which I had undertaken to perform you may estimate the magnitude and the extent of the exertions which it cost me thus to maintain myself a living--a constant--and yet undetected lie! Ten years pa.s.sed away--ten years, marked by many incidents which made me rejoice, for your sake, Francisco, that I had accepted the self-martyrdom which circ.u.mstances had suggested to me. At length our father lay upon his death bed: and then--oh! then I rejoiced--yes, rejoiced, though he was dying; for I thought that the end of my career of duplicity was at hand. Judge, then, of my astonishment--my grief--my despair, when I heard the last injunctions which our father addressed to you, Francisco, on that bed of death. What could the mystery of the closet mean? Of that I _then_ knew nothing. Wherefore was I to remain in complete ignorance of the instructions thus given to you? And what was signified by the words relative to the disposal of our father's property? For you may remember that he spoke thus, addressing himself of course to you:--'You will find that I have left the whole of my property to you. At the same time my will specifies certain conditions relative to your sister Nisida, for whom I have made due provision only in the case--which is, alas! almost in defiance of every hope!--of her recovery from that dreadful affliction which renders her so completely dependent upon your kindness.' These ominous and mysterious words seemed to proclaim defeat and overthrow to all the hopes that I had formed relative to the certainty of your being left the sole and unconditional heir alike to t.i.tle and estate. I therefore resolved to maintain the character of the deaf and dumb until I should have fathomed the secrets of the closet, and have become acquainted with the conditions of the will. Oh! well do I remember the glance which the generous-hearted Duras cast toward me, when, returning to the chamber, he inquired by means of that significant look whether the last words of our dying father were prognostic of hope for me--whether, indeed, the necessity of sustaining the dreadful duplicity would cease when he should be no more. And I remember, also, that the look and the sign, by which I conveyed a negative answer were expressive of the deep melancholy that filled his soul."

"Alas! my dear self-sacrificed sister," murmured Francisco, tears trickling down his cheeks.

"Yes--my disappointment was cruel indeed," continued Nisida. "But the excitement of the scenes and incidents which followed rapidly the death of our father, restored my mind to its wonted tone of fort.i.tude, vigor, and proud determination. That very night, Francisco, I took the key of the cabinet from your garments, while you slept--I sped to the chamber of death--I visited the depository of horrible mysteries--and for the first time I became aware that two skeletons were contained in that closet! And whose fleshless relics those skeletons were, the dreadful ma.n.u.script speedily revealed to me. Then was it also for the first time that I learnt how Margaretha was the detestable spy whose agency had led to such a frightful catastrophe in respect to Eugenio and Vitangela; then I became aware that our mother's corpse slept not in the vault to which a coffin had been consigned:--in a word, the full measure of our sire's atrocity--O G.o.d! that I should be compelled thus to speak--was revealed to me! But on Margaretha have I been avenged," added Nisida, in a low tone, and with a convulsive shudder produced by the recollection of that terrible night when she immolated the miserable woman above the grave where lay a portion of the remains of her mother and of Eugenio.

"You have been avenged on Margaretha, sister," e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Francisco, surveying Nisida with apprehension.

"Yes," she replied, her large black eyes flashing with a scintillation of the former fires: "that woman--I have slain her! But start not, Flora--look not reproachfully upon me, Francisco: 'twas a deed fully justified, a vengeance righteously exercised, a penalty well deserved!

And now let me hasten to bring my long and tedious explanations to a conclusion--for they have occupied a longer s.p.a.ce than I had at first antic.i.p.ated, and I am weak and faint. Little, however, remains to be told. The nature of our father's will compelled me to persist in my self-martyrdom: for I had sworn to my dying mother not to accept any conditions or advantages which should have the effect of disinheriting you, Francisco."

"Oh! what a debt of grat.i.tude do I owe thee, my beloved sister!"

exclaimed the young count, deeply affected by the generous sacrifices made by Nisida on his behalf.

"And think you I have experienced no reward?" asked the lady in a sweet tone, and with a placid smile: "do you imagine that the consciousness of having devoted myself to the fulfillment of my adored mother's wishes has been no recompense? Yes--I have had my consolations and my hours of happiness, as well as my sufferings and periods of profound affliction.

But I feel a soft and heavenly repose stealing over me--'tis a sweet sleep, and yet it is not the slumber of death! No, no; 'tis a delicious trance into which I am falling--'tis as if a celestial vision----"

She said no more. Her eyes closed, she fell back and slept soundly.

"Merciful Heavens! my sister is no more!" exclaimed Francisco, in terror and despair.

"Fear not, my beloved husband," said Flora; "Nisida sleeps, and 'tis a healthy slumber. The pulsations of her heart are regular; her breath comes freely. Joy, joy, Francisco, she will recover!"

"The Holy Virgin grant that your hope may be fulfilled!" returned the young count. "But let us not disturb her. We will sit down by the bedside, Flora, and watch till she shall awake."

But scarcely had he uttered these words when the door of the chamber opened, and an old man of venerable appearance, and with a long beard as white as snow, advanced toward the newly married pair.

Francisco and Flora beheld him with feelings of reverence and awe, for something appeared to tell them that he was a mortal of no common order.

"My dear children," he said, addressing them in a paternal manner, and his voice firm, but mild, "ye need not watch here for the present.

Retire, and seek not this chamber again until the morning of to-morrow.

Fear nothing, excellent young man, for thou hast borne arms in the cause of the cross. Fear nothing, amiable young lady, for thou art attended by guardian angels."

And as the venerable man thus addressed them severally, he extended his hands to bless them; and they received that blessing with holy meekness, and yet with a joyous feeling which appeared to be of glorious augury for their future happiness. Then, obedient to the command of the stranger, they slowly quitted the apartment--urged to yield to his will by a secret influence which they could not resist, but which nevertheless animated them with a pious confidence in the integrity of his purpose. The door closed behind them, and Christian Rosencrux remained in the room with the dead Wagner and the dying Nisida.

CHAPTER LXIV.

While the incidents related in the last few chapters were taking place at the Riverola Palace, the council of state had a.s.sembled to receive the grand vizier, the mighty Ibrahim, who had signified his intention of meeting that august body at three o'clock in the afternoon. Accordingly, as soon as he had witnessed the marriage ceremony which united his sister to the Count of Riverola, he returned from Wagner's mansion to his own pavilion in the midst of the Ottoman encampment. There he arrayed him in a manner becoming his exalted rank, and mounting his splendid caparisoned steed, he repaired with a brilliant escort to the ducal palace. The streets of the city of Florence were thronged with mult.i.tudes eager to gain a sight of the representative of the sultan--a view of the man whose will and pleasure swayed the greatest empire in existence at that period of the world's age!

And as Ibrahim pa.s.sed through those avenues so well known to him--threaded those thoroughfares, each feature of which was so indelibly impressed upon his memory--and beheld many, many familiar spots, all of which awakened in his mind reminiscences of a happy childhood, and of years gone by; when, too, he reflected that he had quitted Florence poor, obscure, and unmarked amidst the millions of his fellow-men; and that now, as he entered the beauteous city, mult.i.tudes came forth to gaze upon him, as on one invested with a high rank and enjoying a power mighty to do much; when he thought of all this, his bosom swelled with mingled emotions of pride and tenderness, regret and joy; and while tears trembled upon his long black lashes, a smile of haughty triumph played on his lips. On, on the procession goes, through the crowded streets and across the s.p.a.cious squares, watched by the eyes of transcendent beauty and proud aristocracy from the balconies of palaces and the cas.e.m.e.nts of lordly mansions; on, on, amidst a wondering and admiring populace, and grateful, too, that so great a chief as Ibrahim should have spared their city from sack and ruin.

At length the grand vizier, attended by the great beglerbegs and pashas of his army, entered the square of the ducal palace; and as his prancing steed bore him proudly beneath the ma.s.sive arch, the roar of artillery announced to the City of Flowers that the Ottoman Minister was now within the precincts of the dwelling of the Florentine sovereign. The duke and the members of the council of state were all a.s.sembled in the court of the Palazzo to receive the ill.u.s.trious visitor, who, having dismounted from his horse, accompanied the prince and those high dignitaries to the council-chamber. When the personages thus a.s.sembled had taken their seats around the s.p.a.cious table, covered with a rich red velvet cloth, the grand vizier proceeded to address the duke and the councilors.

"High and mighty prince, and n.o.ble and puissant lords," he said, in the tone of one conscious of his power, "I am well satisfied with the manner in which my demands have been fulfilled up to this moment. Two ladies, in whom I feel a deep and sincere interest, and who were most unjustly imprisoned to suit the vindictive purposes of the Count of Arestino, have been delivered up to me: and ye have likewise agreed to make full and adequate atonement for the part which Florence enacted in the late contest between the Christians and Mussulmans in the Island of Rhodes. I have therefore determined to reduce my demands upon the republic, for indemnity and compensation, to as low a figure as my own dignity and a sense of that duty which I owe to my sovereign (whom G.o.d preserve many days!) will permit. The sum that I now require from your treasury, mighty prince and puissant lords, is a hundred thousand pistoles; and in addition thereto, I claim peculiar privileges for Ottoman vessels trading to Leghorn, guaranty of peace on the part of the republic for three years, and the release of such prisoners now in the dungeons of the inquisition, whom it may seem good to me thus to mark out as deserving of your mercy."

"A hundred thousand pistoles, my lord, would completely exhaust the treasury of the republic," said the duke, with dismay pictured upon his countenance.

"Think you," cried the grand vizier, angrily, "that I shall dare to face my imperial master, on my return to Constantinople, unless I be able to lay at his feet a sum adequate to meet the expenses incurred by this expedition of a great fleet and a powerful army?"

"Your highness will at least accord us a few days wherein to obtain the amount required," said the duke, "for it will be necessary to levy a tax upon the republic!"

"I grant you until sunset, my lord--until sunset this evening." added the grand vizier, speaking with stern emphasis. "And if you will permit me to tender my advice, you will at once command the grand inquisitor and the Count of Arestino to furnish the sum required: for the former, I am inclined to suspect, is a most unjust judge, and the latter, I am well convinced, is a most cruel and revengeful n.o.ble."

"The Count of Arestino is no more, your highness," answered the duke.

"The Marquis of Orsini murdered him before the very eyes of the grand inquisitor, and will therefore head the procession of victims at the approaching _auto-da-fe_."

"By the footstool of Allah! that shall not be!" exclaimed Ibrahim. "The machinations of the Count of Arestino threw into the inquisition dungeons those two ladies whom ye delivered up to me last night; and it was my intention, when I spoke of releasing certain prisoners ere now, to stipulate for the freedom of all those whom the vengeance of that count has immured in your accursed prison-house. See then, my lords, that all those of whom I speak be forthwith brought hither into our presence!"

It may be proper to inform the reader that Flora had solicited her brother to save the Marquis of Orsini and the Countess Giulia, to whom the young wife of Francisco had been indebted for her escape from the Carmelite Convent; for, as the secrets of the torture chamber were never suffered to transpire, she was of course ignorant of the death of the guilty Giulia, and of the a.s.sa.s.sination of the Count of Arestino by the Marquis of Orsini.

At the command of Ibrahim Pasha, who spoke in a firm and resolute manner, the duke summoned a sentinel from the corridor adjoining the council chamber, and issued the necessary orders to fulfill the desire of the grand vizier. Nearly a quarter of an hour elapsed during which one of the councilors drew up the guaranty of peace and of the commercial privileges demanded by Ibrahim. At length the door opened, and several familiars made their appearance, leading in Manuel d'Orsini and Isaachar ben Solomon, both heavily chained. The former walked with head erect, and proud bearing; the latter could scarcely drag his wasted, racked, and tottering limbs along, and was compelled to hang upon the arms of the familiars for support. Nevertheless, there was something so meek--so patient and so resigned in the expression of the old and persecuted Israelite's countenance, that Ibrahim Pasha's soul was touched with a sentiment of pity in his behalf.

"But these are not all the prisoners," exclaimed the grand vizier, turning angrily toward the duke; "where is the Countess Giulia of Arestino?"

"My lord, she is no more," answered the prince.

"And Heaven be thanked that she is indeed no more!" cried Manuel d'Orsini, in a tone of mingled rage and bitterness. "Fortunate is it for her that death has s.n.a.t.c.hed her away from the grasp of miscreants in human shape and who call themselves Christians. My lord," he continued, turning toward Ibrahim, "I know not who you are; but I perceive by your garb that you are a Moslem, and I presume that your rank is high by the t.i.tle addressed to you by the duke----"

"Presume not thus to intrude your observations on his highness the grand vizier!" exclaimed one of the councilors in a severe tone.

"On the contrary," said Ibrahim Pasha, "let him speak, and without reserve. My Lord of Orsini, fear not--I will protect you."

"The remark I was about to make, ill.u.s.trious vizier," cried Manuel, "is brief, though it may prove not palatable to the patrons of the inquisition and the supporters of that awful engine of despotism and cruelty," he added, glancing fiercely at the duke and the a.s.sembled councilors. "I was anxious to observe that the Christian Church has founded and maintained that abhorrent inst.i.tution; and that there is more true mercy--more genuine sympathy--and more of the holy spirit of forgiveness in the breast of this reviled, despised and persecuted Jew, than in the bosoms of all the miserable hypocrites who have dared to sanction the infernal tortures which have been inflicted upon him. For myself, I would not accept mercy at their hands; and I would rather go in the companionship of this Jew to the funeral pile, than remain alive to dwell amongst a race of incarnate fiends, calling themselves Christians!"

"This insolence is not to be borne," exclaimed the duke, starting from his seat, his countenance glowing with indignation.

"Your highness and all the councilors now a.s.sembled well merit the reproaches of the Marquis of Orsini," said the grand vizier, sternly.

"But it is for _me_ to command here, and for _you_ to obey, proud prince! Let the chains be removed from those prisoners forthwith."

The duke sank back in his chair, and, subduing his rage as well as he was able, he made a sign to the familiars to set the Jew and the marquis at liberty.

"Grand vizier," exclaimed Manuel, "the life and the liberty which, at your all-powerful nod are restored to me will prove irksome and valueless if I be compelled to remain in a Christian land. Confer not favors by halves, my lord--render me completely grateful to you! Take me into your service--even as a slave, if your highness will; but let me accompany to a Mussulman country a Mussulman who can teach the Christians such a fine lesson of mercy and forgiveness."