o the torture-chamber and the third opening to the prisons
of the inquisition.

It was about seven o'clock in the evening, on the 26th of September,
that Flora Francatelli and her aunt were placed before the grand
inquisitor, to be examined for the second time. When the familiars,
habited in their long, black, ecclesiastical dresses with the strange
cowls or hoods shading their stern and remorseless countenances, led in
the two females from the separate cells in which they had been confined,
the first and natural impulse of the unhappy creatures was to rush into
each other's arms;--but they were immediately torn rudely asunder, and
so stationed in the presence of the grand inquisitor as to have a
considerable interval between them.

But the glances which the aunt and niece exchanged, gave encouragement
and hope to each other, and the sentiments which prompted those glances
were really cherished by the persecuted females; inasmuch as Father
Marco, who had been permitted to visit them occasionally, dropped sundry
hints of coming aid, and powerful, though invisible, protection--thereby
cheering their hearts to some little extent, and mitigating the
intensity of their apprehensions. Flora was very pale--but never,
perhaps, had she appeared more beautiful--for her large blue eyes
expressed the most melting softness, and her dark brown hair hung
disheveled over her shoulders, while her bosom heaved with the agitation
of suspense.

"Woman," said the grand inquisitor, glancing first to the aunt and then
to the niece, his eyes, however, lingering upon the latter, "know ye of
what ye are accused? Let the younger speak first."

"My lord," answered Flora, in a firmer tone than might have been
expected from the feelings indicated by her outward appearance, "when on
a former occasion I stood in the presence of your eminence, I expressed
my belief that secret enemies were conspiring, for their own bad
purposes, to ruin my beloved relative and myself; and yet I call Heaven
to witness my solemn declaration that knowingly and willfully we have
wronged no one by word or deed."

"Young woman," exclaimed the grand inquisitor, "thou hast answered my
questions evasively. Wast thou not an inmate of that most holy
sanctuary, the convent of Carmelite nuns? wast thou not there the
companion of Giulia of Arestino? did not a sacrilegious horde of
miscreants break into the convent, headed or at least accompanied by a
certain Manuel d'Orsini wh