misery, thank God, I never endured before or since. I earnestly hope it may not resemble any type of death

d active. Dull terror filled my mind.

ould hear and see anything as distinctly as ever I did in my life. I

p on going into this village inn. I was listening intently, longing for his ret

an arrival, the carriage-door suddenly opened, and

t, made with a sort of hood, which was pulled over his head. I thought, as he moved, that I saw the gold band of a military undress cap under it

mperial, and I observed that he had a red sca

all done in a moment; leaning toward me, and shading his eyes wit

d plan. His designs were evidently sinister. I thought he was going to rob, and, perhaps, murder me. I lay, nevertheless, like a corpse under his hands. He inse

e with them. It was evidently about the paper I have mentioned, that he was concerned; for the mome

a noiseless and cool celerity which argued, I

very order in which he had found them, repl

ance, I heard the voice of the Marquis once more. He got in, and I saw him look at

y the light of the little lamp which ha

as if air passed through it into my throat. It seemed as if a bubble of air, formed deep in my ear, swelled, and burst there. The indescribable tension of my brain seemed all at once to give way; there was an odd humming in my head, and a so

d, and earnestly asked if I was ill.

very faintly, to tell him how very ill I had been; and then to describe the

ed, "the miscreant did no

point. He placed the box on the seat beside him,

ured. "There are half-a-dozen letters here, that I

ty all about the illness I complain

you; and was called on to exert both his strength and his courage suddenly. An hour or two after, fatigue overpowered him, and he appeared to fall in

ttack was not unique. Did he e

each attack. Your unexpected, and gallant hand-to-hand encounter, at such desperate odds, with an experienced swordsman, l

urning back, however, because we should learn nothing. Those people always manage so adroitly. I am satisfi

ill and exhausted, but the

up; because the Marquis being, as you are aware, on his travels, the Hotel d'Harmonville is, for the present, tenanted only by two or three old servants, who must not even see Monsieur Droqville. That gentleman will, nevertheless, contrive to get you access to the box of Monsieur le Marquis, at the Op

ure I thanke

on the spot, just then, taking so kind an interest in the stranger whom he had, as it were, b

as I still thanked him, the carriage suddenly stopped in front of the place wh