subterranean charnel-house
by the dim light of a sickly lamp; but even if she had not been, no word
would have issued from her lips, as the manuscript justly observes.
During her illness, however, she sought an interview with her husband
for the purpose of proving to him her complete innocence, by revealing
the fact that his victim was her own brother! But he refused all the
entreaties proffered with that object, and our unfortunate mother was
forced to contemplate the approach of death with the sad conviction that
she should pass away without the satisfaction of establishing her
guiltlessness in the eyes of our father. Then was it that she revealed
everything to me--to me alone--to me, a young girl of only fifteen when
those astounding facts were breathed into my ears. I listened with
horror, and I began to hate my father, for I adored my mother. She
implored me not to give way to any intemperate language or burst of
passion which might induce the inmates of the mansion to suspect that I
was the depositary of some terrible secret.

"'For,' said our mother, when on her death-bed, 'if I have ventured to
shock your young mind by so appalling a revelation, it is only that you
may understand wherefore I am about to bind you by a solemn vow to love,
protect, and watch over Francisco, as if he were your own child, rather
than your brother. His father, alas! hates him. This I have observed
ever since the birth of that dear boy, but it is only by means of the
dread occurrence of the other night that I have been able to divine the
origin of that dislike and unnatural loathing. Your father, Nisida,'
continued my mother, 'believes that I have been unfaithful, and suspects
that Francisco is the offspring of a guilty _amour_. With this terrible
impression upon his mind, he may persecute my poor boy; he may
disinherit him; he may even seek to rid him of life. Kneel, then, by my
bedside, Nisida, and swear by all you deem sacred--by the love you bear
for me--and by your hopes of salvation, that you will watch unweariedly
and unceasingly over the welfare and the interests of Francisco--that
you will make any sacrifice, incur any danger, or undergo any privation,
to save him from the effects of his father's hate--that you will exert
all possible means to cause the title and fortune of his father to
descend to him, and that you will in no case consent to supplant him in
those respects--and lastly, that you will keep secret the dread histor