Daily evening star. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1852-1854, 1854-03-07


the insensible woman, the Countess read
ing her husbands impulse in his look,
sprang from the open door Of the chariot
and interposed between him and his in
tended victim. With the dignity of one
born of noble rank, the soldier accepted
her protection, and followed her into the
carriage, which was ordered to proceed
to the Invalides.
The night following, Paris was on the
qui vive of expectation, for new prima
donna was to make her debut before the
Emperor.
Paris was also on the qui yive for the
'lPshot of a certain matter of scandal,
the advertisement at the hotel Montalem.
bert, it was said, had been followed by
rupture between the Count and his lady,
but the dissolute husband, determined to
carry out his defiance, had declared to
his companions that he would produce at
the Opera, in box opposite to his wife,
the same person whose appearance she
had resented, and in the same entire. tt
was presumed, by the graver courtiers
who had heard this, that the actors in
this brutal scene, if it should be carried
out, would fail under some mark of the
especial displeasure of the Emperor.
The overture commenced to a crowded
house, and before it was half played, the
presence of the Count and his companion,
II conspicuous box ON the left of the
circle, drew the attention of every eve.
The Montalemberts were the subject OF
general conversation amongst the beau
monde. The sudden disappearance of
the old Count-his death in a distant
province-his will relative to his wife
and De Norway, all the particulars of that
curious inheritance of wife and fortune
by written testament, were passed from
lip to lip.
There was pause at the close of the
overture. The house was silent, and
many were occupied in looking at the au
daclous young Count and his companion,
and partly in watching for the entrance
of the injured Countess.
i sudden light illuminated the empty
box, shed from the lobby lamps upon the
Curtains at the opening of the door, and
the Countess Montalembert entered, with
every eye Of the fashionable world turned
towards her. But how radiantly beau.
tiful and how strangely dressed! Her
toilette was that of bride Orange
flowers were woven into her long raven
tresses, and her robe of spotless white
was folded across her bust with the SIM,
plicity of girlhood, and as she took her
seat, a smile seemed to pass across her
face as she regarded the assemblage in
the theatre. Never, it was acknowledged
on all sides, had the Countess looked so
radiant and beautiful, and many and Sc
we're were the criticisms passed upon one
who could be thus early insensible to
charms which he should have gloried to
possess, and call his own. Shortly after,
and while still occupied with the fair
Countess, the Emperor entered his box.
But who was there at the right hand
of Napoleon-smiled upon by the En-
peror as the Emperor seldom smiled {!
Decorated with the noblest orders of
franco star on his breast-could it be
possible? 1t was the former husband of
Zelis, the Count Montalembert. The
surprise at his appearance was upon every
feature, and the name of the noble soldier
was unconsciOusly uttered by all the
astonished spectators till the murmur
gradually filed the house. Was he risen
from the dead! Was this an apparition
of the indignant husband, risen to rebuke
the unmanly brutality of the second
In an instant, as if with one accord, the
attention of the house seems rivetted
upon the box of the Countess. What
effect would this sudden apparition have
upon her! Look-she turns to the illu-
minated box of the Emperor. Size smiles
with radiant blush of joy and happiness
she smiles-she lifts that ungloved and
unjewelled hand, decorated only with a
plain gold ring, and waves it to the bow
ing Count-the brave, true, romantic
hontalembert. In an instant, and with
the quickness of French divination, the
assembly seem to solve the mystery. 1t
is the only Interpretation they can give
to the riddle, and it is evidently the Just
che. The audacious veteran was none
other than the disguised Count watching
over the happiness whose destiny of love
ne had rashly, too rashly undertaken to
make cloudless-made cloudless at the
expense of crushed heart and usurped
hearth. j
Inc moment that Ad0lphe lie Nor
nay became conscious of his position, and
me deserved retribution which he was
about to undergo, he fed crest-fallen
from the theatre, nor was he again seen
In the saloons of Paris. He immediately
joined the army, and in the very first
oaIue OF the next campaign he was NOR.
tally wounded. While Montalembert,
whose spring of life was fed by love.
hved yet for may years in unalloyed hap.
piness with his charming partner, and
had the Infinite satisfaction of seeing the
continuance of the house Montalembert
secured In the direct line of his own
children, who, when he had at length
passed from this world, would fill the
heart of the mother, and thus still hind
the beautiful Zelie throughout her life to
her faithful and romantic lover and hus-
band. -