The daily gazette., 1877-08-08
The Prisoner Of State,
BY COURTLAND.

obu ehou ~ uibdppcdTcus Dut llS DTiet
stay had wakened new thought in
the captive. On the wall frightened
by that glance he had seen inscribed
"Le due de Normande." The name
was suggestive of many fancies. Who
could it be?
"Who occupied this room before
did Jaques?" asked Pelllco of the turn
key who was Frehchman, the next
morning as he came in to replenish
the water pitcher for the prisoner.
The fellow who had been especially
charged not to answer questions mere
ly pointed to the next cell.
"Was it he who is now at number
eigthteen?" persisted the cpative.
The man bowed his head in assent.
Before noon; Pellico had opened a
conversation with his neighbor which
now consisted only of few common
place words.
Day after day the conversation was
renewed and prolonged. The polish
ed tone the cultivated and noble senti-
ment all pleased and charmed Pellico
Even his prison seemed less dark than
before. One morning after an earnest
|colloquy between the two Pellico ap
preached question which had long
trembled on his lips;
"May ask the name of my new
friendY"
Aud the answer came-"The Duke
of Normandy" go
"rhe Duke of Normandy"
Even so. Ihear you surprised tone
and fancy you are even now looking
at the lines which | wrote on you
wall"
l am indeed lighted as they are by
my one stray sunbeam" n
"Ay by that stray sunbeam one year
ago l wrote them there"
Aud Pellico read them aloud.
ut makes one better of ones own
verses when they are read like that"
said his friend.
Mutual histories were afterward e6-
changed.
II am the brother of Louis XVII
the dauphin who was said to have
died in the temple. My uncle called
Louis XVIII, is the usurper OF my
throne" u .H
But why my friend did you not as
sert your rights on the restoration of
the BourboDs?"
II was Ill in France at the time. No
one sympathized with me except the
good Prince of Conde and my sister,
the Duchess of Angouleme-and they
no power to help to restore my rights" !"
SO rational and connect ed were the
assertions of the prisoner, and his ac-
count of b, ing arrested and thro wn in
to prison that Pellico was impressed
with the truth of his statements, and
settled firmly to the belief that he was
the mnch-injured daupnin.
81 am going away, Signor Pellico,"
said the soft yet clear voice of his fell
low prisoner one day after months of
intercourse.
And the next mornine Silvio Pellico
heard only the echoes of his own voice
as he called aloud to his friend. He
was gone-liberated the turnkey said
and escorted by gems d. armes out of
Lombardy and. the Austrian domin-
ions.
A little Alpine cottage, high up in
the mountains and looking almost as
| inaccessible as an eagles nest and In
habited by an honest and intelligent
peasant and his family. Phillipo San
gradi was noble man in peasant garb
His wife was good kind motherly
woman worth to be the wife of such a
man and the daughter Blanca was the
loveliest flower that bloomed in that
Alphine solitude. Every day she at
tended her father to the mountain
path taat wound downward to the
scene of his labor-and evening saw
her watching half way down the steep
cliff for his return. .l} |.
One of these occasions, she was started
at hearing groan issuing from behind the
| rock against which she was leaning. II
was repeated, and Bianca's benevolence
getting the better OF her fears, she crept
around the rock, and SAW in the dim twi-
light sight that stirred up every tender
| and pityny emotion. Beside the rock lay
a man, in the garb OF noble, pale, and
bleeding proIusely from wound in the
| side, which he had in vain endeavored, as
it seemed, to stauuch with the long grass
that grew within his reach in the fi,sures
OIL the COCK. To tear off the white linen
apron that protected tue blue dress from
injury, to scrape portion OF 1t into lint Tor
the wound. ana toshasten To spring not
TAR off ior water. which she brought III a
gourd LETT always beside it, for strangers TO
drink from, occupied but few moments,
and by the time she had done, Philippe
himself came ap the mountain.
Fortunately they were near the cottage,
and, by summoning young man who had
just turned INTO another path, and a by
who was taking care Of some goats, Philippe
was able, alter constructing litter OF some
dry branches and covering it thickly with
the soft, long grass, to convey the wounded
man home. No surgical aid was within
reach, but Phihppo had some skill and be
bound up the wound with both judgment
and tenderness and as no conventional
scruples prevented his daughter from as
sisting her mother to nurse The stranger, he
was soon well enough to tell the story oi
his misfortune. Without revealing who he
was, he satisfied hem that he was of noble
blood, but that reasons OF State policy pre-
vented him from declaring himself. lie
related how the very escort which had
been provided for his safety, and had ac-
companied him with the greatest care and
respect during the route across Lake Como
and the Alps, had committed the outrage
upon him and left him tor dead. That the
design was private treachery and not iol
mercenary ends, the fact that his money
and Jewels were untouched, sufficient y
proved. He called himself the Count ot
| Rourlnn and not until the truth burst uDol