achful tone, "didst
thou not know that I was engaged? What means this abrupt intrusion?"

"Pardon me, holy mother!" exclaimed the nun: "but the rumor of such a
frightful murder has just reached us----"

"A murder!" ejaculated the abbess. "Oh! unhappy Florence, when wilt thou
say farewell to crimes which render thy name detestable among Italian
states?"

"This indeed, too, holy mother, is one of inordinate blackness,"
continued Sister Ursula. "A young and beautiful lady----"

"We know not personal beauty within these walls, daughter," interrupted
the abbess, sternly.

"True, holy mother! and yet I did but repeat the tale as the porteress
ere now related it to me. However," resumed Ursula, "it appears that a
young female, whom the worldly-minded outside these sacred walls
denominate beautiful, was barbarously murdered this morning--shortly
after the hour of sunrise----"

"Within the precincts of Florence?" inquired the abbess.

"Within a short distance of the convent, holy mother," answered the nun.
"The dreadful deed was accomplished in the garden attached to the
mansion of a certain Signor Wagner, whom the worldly-minded style a
young man wondrously handsome."

"A fair exterior often conceals a dark heart, daughter," said the
abbess. "But who was the hapless victim?"

"Rumor declares, holy mother----"

The nun checked herself abruptly, and glanced at Nisida, who, during the
above conversation, had approached the windows which commanded a view of
the convent garden, and whose back was therefore turned toward the
abbess and Ursula.

"You may speak fearlessly, daughter," said the abbess; "that unfortunate
lady hears you not--for she is both deaf and dumb."

"Holy Virgin succor her," exclaimed Ursula, crossing herself. "I was
about to inform your ladyship," she continued, "that rumor represents
the murdered woman to have been the sister of this Signor Wagner of whom
I spoke; but it is more than probable that there was no tie of
relationship between them--and that----"

"I understand you, daughter," interrupted the abbess. "Alas! how much
wickedness is engendered in this world by the sensual, fleshly passion
which mortals denominate love! But is the murderer detected?"

"The murderer was arrested immediately after the perpetration of the
crime," responded Ursula; "and at this moment he is a prisoner in the
dungeon of the palace."

"Who is the lost man that has perpetrated such a dreadful crime?"
demanded