and then to remove my respected parents to Genoa, at which city they were
so kindly treated that my mother, in common gratitude, was bound to
increase its population. It was all she could do, poor woman. You see
she did her best.'

"The count smiled, and said no more. The door opened, I followed him;
your daughter can tell you the rest."

"And you risked your life in that den of miscreants! Noble friend!"

"Risked my life,--no; but I risked the count's. There was one moment
when my hand was on my trigger, and my soul very near the sin of
justifiable homicide. But my tale is done. The count is now on the
river, and will soon be on the salt seas, though not bound to Norway, as
I had first intended. I could not inflict that frigid voyage on his
sister. So the men have orders to cruise about for six days, keeping
aloof from shore, and they will then land the count and the marchesa, by
boat, on the French coast. That delay will give time for the prince to
arrive at Vienna before the count could follow him."

"Would he have that audacity?"

"Do him more justice! Audacity, faith! he does not want for that. But
I dreaded not his appearance at Vienna with such evidence against him.
I dreaded his encountering the prince on the road, and forcing a duel,
before his character was so blasted that the prince could refuse it; and
the count is a dead shot of course,--all such men are!"

"He will return, and you--"