In a Glass Darkly, v. 2/3

ll pleased with himself, and has nothing on earth to trouble him, and who sits alone by a fire in a

ay, hung uncomfortably; and it is admitted, that a variety of Fre

pers that stood at the corners of a raised platform hung with black, on which lay, draped also in black, what seemed to me the dead body

low tread of two persons walking up the flagged aisle. A faint echo told of the vastness of the place. An awful sense of expectation was upon me, and I was horri

ither speak nor move. I

ead of the figure and placed his long thin hands under it. The white-faced Colonel, with the scar across

roke the spell that bound me, an

Gaillarde was staring, white as death, at me, from the

he is, Monsieur," repl

" I gasped, lo

had his demi-tasse of café noir, and now drank h

anguage, founded on the r?le he played in my dream, should h

he Count and Countess de St. Alyre?" he said, winking one

so-yes,"

an that some night," he said, enigmatically, and wagge

eur the Colonel

bit, little by little, tracing it this way and that, and up and down, and round about, until the whole clue is wound up on my thumb, and the end, and its secret, fast in my fingers. Ingenious

"Will Monsieur the

. "Ah! ah! Bah! That is not it," he exclaimed, with some disgust, filling it again. "You ou

ited the inn-yard, and looked up to the windows of the Countess's apartments. They were closed, however, and I had not even the unsubstantial conso

ramble, it is enough to say, occupied about half-an-hour, and, returning by a slight détour, I found myself in a little square, with about two high gabled houses on each side, and a rude stone statue, worn by centuries of rain, on a p

i, as I do. These little provincial towns! Heavens! what an effort it is to live in them! If I could regret having formed in early life a friendship

ordered

l, either would emancipate me; but I can'

y use in this m

a piece in which every r?le is already cast. I am but an

the Belle Etoile, and then came a silence, which I broke

death. He has always some delusion. They contrived some employment for him-not regimental, of course-but in this campaign Napoleon, wh

ed l'Ecu de France. At its door the Marquis stoppe

, the gar?on who had brought me my Burgundy a little time ago. I was think

el Gaillarde was at the Belle

Mons

ctly in his

ared. "Perfec

ed at any time of be

is a little noisy, bu

to think?" I mutte

horses, stood in the moonlight at the door, and a furious altercation was going o

ostume, with his black silk scarf covering the lower part of his face, confronted him; he had evidently been intercepted in an endeavour to reach his carriage. A little in the rear of the Count stood the Countess, also in travelling costume, with her thick black veil down, and holding in her delicate fingers a white rose. You can't conceive a

nd whirled his sword. "I was not sure of your red birds of prey; I could not believe you would have the audacity to travel on high roads, and to stop at honest inns, and lie under the same roo

id her hand wildly upon my arm. "Oh! Monsieur," she whispered, in great agitation, "th

between the Count and Gaillarde, as he shrieked his invective, "Hold your

isk I ran, as the sword of the frantic soldier, after a mo