But ah! what does Nisida behold? The moment she applies the telescope to her eye, she is transported as it were to her own native city. She is in Florence--yes, in the fair capital of Tuscany. Every familiar scene is presented to her again; and she once more views the busy crowds and the bustling haunts of men. She sweeps them all with a hurried glance; and then her look settled upon a young couple walking together in a secluded place on the banks of the Arno. But oh! how terribly flashed her eyes--how changed with wrath and concentrated rage suddenly becomes her countenance! For in that fond pair, wandering so lovingly together on the Arno's margin she recognized her brother Francisco and the maiden Flora Francatelli! "Thou hast seen enough!" cried the demon, snatching the telescope from her hands. "And now, more than ever," he added with a malignant smile of triumph, "dost thou long to revisit thy native land. It was to confirm that longing that I showed thee the scene thou hast just witnessed." "And canst thou give me the means to return thither?" demanded Nisida, almost maddened by the spectacle that had met her eyes. "Listen!" exclaimed the fiend, "and hear me patiently. I charge thee not to breathe to thy Fernand one word descriptive of this interview which thou hast had with me. Thou couldst simulate dumbness for ten long years or more, with a success which rendered thee great and glorious in my eyes--for I love the hypocrite and the deceiver," he added with one of his diabolical smiles; "although I myself deceive them! Be dumb, then, in all that relates to my visit to thee here. But thou mayst so beset thy Fernand with earnest entreaties to give thee the means of departure from this island--for he can do so, if he have the will--that he shall be unable to resist thy prayer--thy fears--thy anguish, real or feigned, whichever that anguish may be. And should he not yield to thy intercessions, then assail him on another point. Tell him that thou wilt never rest until thou shalt have discovered the cause of those periodical visits which he makes to the other side of the mountains--threaten to accompany him the next time he goes thither. But I need not teach you how to be energetic nor eloquent. For thou art a woman of iron mind and of persuasive tongue; and thy perseverance, as is thy will, is indomitable. Follow my counsel, then--and, though the future to a great extent be concealed from my view, yet I dare prophesy success for thee! And now farewell, Nisida--farewell!" And the demon retreated rapidly toward the forests, as if to seek the abode of those terrible serpents whose cunning was akin to his own. Nisida was too much astonished by the nature of the counsel which his deep sonorous voice had wafted to her ear, to be able to utter a word until his receding form was no longer visible, and then she exclaimed wildly; "I have assuredly seen Satan face to face!"