and fates of the leading characters in
the tale, will acquit us of our task. Nisida and Wagner were entombed in
the same vault; and their names were inscribed upon the same mural
tablet. The funeral was conducted with the utmost privacy--and the
mourners were few, but their grief was sincere. And among them was Dr.
Duras, who had loved Nisida as if she had been his own child. On the
night following the one on which these obsequies took place, another
funeral procession departed from the Riverola Palace to the adjacent
church; and two coffins were on this occasion, as on the former,
consigned to the family tomb. But the ceremony was conducted with even
more privacy than the first; and one mourner alone was present. This was
Francisco himself; and thus did he perform the sad duty of interring in
sacred ground the remains of his ill-fated mother Vitangela and her
brother Eugenio. The manuscript of the late Count of Riverola was burnt;
the closet which so long contained such fearful mysteries was walled up;
the chamber where so many dreadful incidents had occurred was never used
during the lifetime of Francisco and Flora. The grand vizier remained
with his army a few days beneath the walls of Florence: and during that
time Isaachar ben Solomon so far recovered his health and strength,
under the skillful care of an Egyptian physician, as to be able to visit
his dwelling in the suburb of Alla Croce, and secure the immense wealth
which he had amassed during a long life of activity and financial
prosperity.

When the day of the grand vizier's departure arrived, he took a tender
farewell of his sister Flora and his aunt, both of whom he loaded with
the most costly presents; and in return, he received from Francisco a
gift of several horses of rare breed and immense value. Nor did this
species of interchange of proofs of attachment end here, for every year,
until Ibrahim's death, did that great minister and the Count of Riverola
forward to each other letters and rich presents--thus maintaining to the
end that friendship which had commenced in the Island of Rhodes, and
which was cemented by the marriage of Francisco and Flora. Isaachar ben
Solomon and Manuel d'Orsini accompanied the grand vizier to
Constantinople, and were treated by him with every mark of distinction.
But the Jew never completely recovered from the tortures which he had
endured in the prison of the inquisition; and in less than two years
from the date of his rel