st
alarm and confusion prevailing amongst the nuns, the shrieks of the
abbess, Sister Alba, and the penitents, and the alarm of the bell,
having reached the ears of the recluses. Their consternation was
increased almost to madness when they suddenly perceived several armed
men emerging from the private staircase leading to the subterranean
department, and Lomellino found it impossible to tranquilize them either
by threats or fair speaking. A guard of sbirri must have been passing at
the time, for loud knocks resounded at the gate, which the old portress
immediately opened before Lomellino or any of his men could interfere to
prevent her. A number of police officers rushed in, and then commenced a
terrific combat between the banditti and the sbirri, the former of whom
were forced into an apartment, the door of which was originally locked,
but was burst open in the deadly struggle. There the strife was
continued, when suddenly the cry of "Fire" arose, and the flames, which
had caught a bed in the apartment, spread rapidly to the cumbrous and
time-worn woodwork that supported the ceiling. How the fire originated,
Lomellino knew not, but as some of the nuns carried lamps in their
hands, and rushed wildly about in all directions in their terror, it was
not very difficult to hazard a conjecture as to the cause of the
conflagration. From that apartment, where the fire began, the flames
drove the combatants into an inner room, and there Lomellino saw his
comrade Piero hurled down some steep place, he himself being too sorely
pressed by his assailants to be able to repair to his assistance.

At length, seeing that all his companions were slain, Lomellino had
fought his way desperately through the police-officers, and had
succeeded in escaping from the convent, though closely pursued by three
of the sbirri. They were rapidly gaining upon him, when an awful crash
suddenly met their ears, as they were hurrying along the street leading
to the wood; and, looking back, Lomellino beheld a tremendous pillar of
flame shoot up from the place where the convent had stood, to the very
sky, rendering for the space of a minute everything as light as day
around. The building had fallen in, and Heaven only knows how many of
the nuns and sbirri had escaped, or how many had perished beneath the
ruins! Those officers who were in pursuit of Lomellino were so astounded
by the sudden din and the column of flame, that they remained rooted to
the spot w