midnight
`` I will -- I will , '' answered the physician . `` And after all you have told me , and if she be really the bad , profligate , and evil-disposed girl you represent her , it will be well that the inquisition should hold her tight in its grasp . '' With these words Dr. Duras departed , leaving Nisida to gloat over the success which her plans had thus far experienced . It was verging toward midnight , and the moon was concealed behind dark clouds , when a tall figure , muffled in a cloak , climbed over the railing which inclosed one portion of the spacious garden attached to the Riverola Palace . That person was Fernand Wagner . He had arrived in Florence two days before that on which Nisida returned to the ancestral dwelling : -- he had entered the city boldly and openly in the joyous sun-light -- and yet no one molested him . He even encountered some of the very sbirri who had arrested him in the preceding month of February ; they saluted him respectfully -- thus showed that they recognized him -- but offered not to harm him .