the
cupola of the Medicean chapel on its right, and bringing out into strong
relief against the deep foliage of the evergreens the marble fronts of
palaces, villas, and convents, seated amidst the hills, or scattered
through the vale--the whole affording a rich and varied view, as if
eternal summer reigned in that delightful region and beneath the purple
canopy of that warm Italian sky!

Alas! that the selfish interests, dark passions, conflicting feeling,
clashing aims, and black, black crimes of men should mar the serenity
and peace which ought to maintain an existence congenial to this scene!

Scarcely had the orient beams penetrated through the barred casements of
the Jew Isaachar's house in the suburb of Alla Croce, when the old man
was awakened from a repose to which he had only been able to withdraw a
couple of hours previously, by a loud and impatient knocking at his
gate.

Starting from his couch, he glanced from the window, and, to his dismay,
beheld the lieutenant of police, accompanied by half a dozen of his
terrible sbirri, and by an individual in the plain, sober garb of a
citizen.

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.

The dark hints which Manuel d'Orsini had dropped relative to the
possibility of the count's discovering the affair of the diamonds, and
the certain vengeance that would ensue, flashed to the mind of Isaachar
ben Solomon; and he stood, as it were, paralyzed at the window, gazing
with the vacancy of despair upon the armed men, on whose steel morions
and pikes the morning sunbeams now fell in radiant glory.

The knocking was repeated more loudly and with greater impatience than
before; and Isaachar, suddenly restored to himself, and remembering that
it was dangerous as well as useless to delay the admittance of those who
would not hesitate to force a speedy entry, huddled on his garments, and
descended to the door.

The moment it was opened, the sbirri and the citizen entered; and the
lieutenant, turning shortly round upon the Jew, said, "His Excellency
the Count of Arestino demands, through my agency, the restoration of
certain diamonds which his lordship has good reason to believe are in
your possession. But think no