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Updated: May 16, 2025
It was on the sixth night, and the two inmates of the gloomy cell were preparing to retire to their humble pallet, after offering their prayers to the Virgin, for adversity had already taught the countess to pray, and to pray devoutly, too, when they were startled and alarmed by the sudden clang of a large bell fixed in some part of the subterrane.
It was beneath the Palazzo del Podesta that the dungeons of the criminal prison and also those of the inquisition were situated. In a cell belonging to the former department, Fernand Wagner was already a captive; and Isaachar ben Solomon now became the inmate of a narrow, cold, and damp stone chamber, in that division of the subterrane which was within the jurisdiction of the holy office.
In the meantime the helpless victim of ecclesiastical vengeance the poor erring creature, who had dared and sacrificed everything for the love of her seducer had risen from her suppliant posture, and flown wildly madly round to the elder nuns in succession, imploring mercy, and rending the very roof of the subterrane with piercing screams.
Those who were in the treasure-chamber felt the ground shake beneath their feet; the sides although hollowed from the solid rock appeared to vibrate and groan, and the aperture leading into the subterrane of the convent was closed up by the massive masonry that had fallen in.
For, on the second night of her abode in that place, the noise of the well-known machinery was heard; the revolution of wheels and the play of the dreadful mechanism raised ominous echoes throughout the subterrane.
"Merely to warn those above that something unusual is taking place below," answered the old woman. "And by what means can access be obtained to this subterrane?" demanded the marquis. "There is a staircase leading from the chamber of penitence up into the hall of the convent "
When they were enabled to collect their scattered ideas, and the incidents of the last half-hour assumed a definite shape in their memories, the sound of hymn and bell had ceased the chamber of penitence was deserted the silence of death reigned throughout the subterrane nor did even the faintest shriek or scream emanate from the cell in which the victim was entombed.
On all sides hung huge boulders and cliffs like pouting, protruding lips, as if the mountains had been shaken into shape by some subterrane force and resented even yet their rough treatment. Mosses hung from tree trunks, and vines thickly blanketed the rocks and ledges between which dashed sparkling waterfalls in haste to join the Skagway below.
When the subterrane was thus cleared of the living, and the dead alone remained in that place which had so long been their home, and was now their tomb, Demetrius ordered his forces to disperse and return to their quarters in Florence in the same prudent manner which had characterized their egress thence a few hours before.
For surely demons in mortal shape must have invented that terrible engine by means of which I was consigned to this subterrane!" The recollection of the anguish she had suffered during the descent, a mental agony that Flora herself could fully appreciate, she having passed through the same infernal ordeal, produced a cold shudder which oscillated throughout Giulia's entire form.
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