ke to
title 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 fortitude, 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
manuscript 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 God! 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," ejaculated 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!
A