ible,
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-assorted 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 God,
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,