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Updated: June 4, 2025
She knocked gently at the door, which was shortly opened by the old woman, who imagined it was her son that sought admittance; for, though in the service of the Count of Arestino, Antonio was often kept abroad late by the various machinations in which he had been engaged, and it was by no means unusual for him to seek his mother's dwelling at all hours.
No oppressor of the poor defenseless Jew is he! Would that Florence abounded in such nobles as the Count of Arestino!" "Cease thy prating, Jew, and let us dispatch this business," cried the officer. "You see," he added, glancing toward his men, "that with these at my disposal, the ransacking of your dwelling would be a light and easy matter." "I will not render it necessary," returned the Jew.
He observed that the interest of the Count of Arestino, who would doubtless endeavor to hasten the proceedings in order to wreak speedy vengeance upon his wife and the Marquis of Orsini, was very powerful to contend against; but that gold could accomplish much.
"You informed me how you were liberated from the convent, and you mentioned the name of the Countess of Arestino, whom circumstances had made your companion in that establishment, and to whom your aunt gave an asylum.
Or shall we inform our readers that at the banquet to which he had been invited at a friend's villa that evening, he had overheard two young nobles, in a conversation which the generous wine they had been too freely imbibing rendered indiscreetly loud, couple the names of Giulia Arestino, his own much-loved wife, and Manuel d'Orsini, in a manner which suddenly excited a fearful, a blasting suspicion in his mind?
It was within half an hour of midnight, and the beautiful Giulia Arestino was sitting restlessly upon an ottoman, now holding her breath to listen if a step were approaching the private door behind the tapestry then glancing anxiously toward a clepsydra on the mantel. "What can detain him thus? will he deceive me?" she murmured to herself.
But, though gay that July scene though glorious in its splendor that unclouded summer sun, though gorgeous the balconies filled with flowers, and brilliant the parterres of Tuscan roses, yet gloomy was the countenance and dark were the thoughts of the Count of Arestino, as he paced with agitated steps one of the splendid apartments of his palace.
Nay, that ruin is certain to fall upon her certain also to overwhelm you for the Count of Arestino is a councilor of state, and," added Manuel, with slow, measured emphasis, "the dungeons of the inquisition open at his commands to receive the heretic or the Jew!"
Was it possible that the Countess of Arestino could have employed the dreaded chieftain of the Florentine banditti to wrest her diamonds from the possession of Isaachar? or had the Jew invented the tale for an obvious purpose? The latter alternative scarcely seemed feasible. How could Isaachar have learned that the sum raised was for the payment of a gambling debt?
A cold tremor came over the unhappy Israelite, for he knew that this official visit could bode him no good: and the dread of having encountered the resentment of the Count of Arestino, immediately conjured up appalling scenes of dungeons, chains, judgment-halls and tortures, to his affrighted imagination.
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