Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1899-02-16

| have experienced greater despair. His
assassination seemed to me atrOCious,
but | was at least able to assure him
that his friendship was returned. 1
hastily read the telegram, throw myself
into a fiacre and hastened to his apart
ments. The woman who acted as house,
keeper for him, Mime. Moniche, the
FORTRESS, raising her arms as She opened
the door for me, said:
"'Ah, monsieur, but monsieur has
waited for you. He has repeated your
name all night. He nearly died. but he
is better now.
"Rovere, sitting the night before by
his fire, had been stricken by lateral
| paralysis, and as soon as he could hold
a pen, in spite Of tho orders of the ply
stefan who had been quickly called, had
written and sent the message to me
some hours before.
Gas soon as he saw me he-the strong
man, the mad misanthrope, silent and
| somber-hcld mo in his arms and burst
into tears. His embrace was that of a
man who concentrates in one being all
| that remains Of hope.
7
/ low tone. If thou NEWEST
Il was moved to the depths of my
heart That manly face usually so en-
ergetic wore an expression of terror
which was i'll some way almost childish,
a timorous fright. The tears rose in his
eyes
"'Oh, how have waited for thee,
how have lCngcd for thee'
HE repeated this phrase with anx-
/ jous obstinacy Then he seemed to be
suffocating Emotion! The sight of mo
recalled to him the long agony Of that
night when he thought that he was
about to die without parting with me
for the last time
For what have to tell thee
"Ho shook his head.
1t is the secret OF my life.
"He was lying on a sort of sick chair
or lounge i'll the library where he pass
Cd his last days with his books. He
made me sit down beside him. He took
my hand and said:
Il am going to die. ] believed that
the end had como last night. | called
thee. Oh, well, if / had died there is
one being N the world who would not
have had the fortune which, have
Gle lowered his voice as if he thought
we were spied upon, as if some one
could hear.
81 have a daughter. Yes, even from
thee | have hidden this secret, which
fortunes me. a daughter who loves me
and who has not the right to confess
this tenderness no more than have the
right to give her my name. All, our
youth sad youth! l might have had a
homo today. flrcsido of my own, a
dear one near me, and instead Of that
an affection of which | am ashamed
and which l have hidden even from
thee, Jacques-from thee, dost thou
comprehend
81 remember each Of Roverc' g words
as if [ was hearing them now. This
conversation with. my poor friend is
among the most poignant yet most pre-
cious of my remembrances With much
emotion, which distressed me, the poor
man revealed to mo the secret which he
had believed it his duty to hide from
me so many years. and | vowed to him
is why hositated to speak or rather re-
fused to speak not wishing to comprO-
misc any one, neither the dead nor liv-
ing-I swore to him, NJ. lie Juge, to re.
peat nothing Of what he told me to any
one to any one but to her
Her" Intercepted ~ Ginory.
His daughter, Dantin replied.
The examining magistrate recalled
that visitor in black who had been seen
occasionally at Rovere's apartments
and the little romance of which Paul
Rodier had written in his paper-the
romance of the woman i'll black.
And this daughter:'
"She bears, " said Dantin, with dis.
couraged gesture, 1.-The name Of the IA
ther which the law gives her, and thi,
name is a great name, an illustriOu,
name, that of retired general officer
living in one Of the provinces, widow
er, and who adOres the girl who is an
other mans child. The mother is dead
The father has never known. When dy.
ing, the mother revealed the secret tC
her daughter, She came, by command
of the dead, to see Revere, but as sis
ter of charity, faithful to the name
which she bears. She does not wish tC
marry. She will never leave tho Grip
pied old soldier who calls her his
daughter and who adores her. "
"Ohl' said NJ. Ginory, remaining
mute moment before this very simpl,
drama, and in which, in that moment Of
reflection he comprohended, he an
alyzed, nearly all of the hidden griofs
, the secret tears, the stitled sobs, the
stolen kisses. And that is why yor
kept SILENT" he asked.
Eyes, monsieur. Oh, but | could mo-
endure the torture any longer, and no
y seeing the expected release any nearer
would have spOken--I would have spo
ken to escape that cell, that sense of suite
, cation, endured there, 1t seemed to me
however that | owed it to my deaC
friend not to reveal his secret TO any
I one, not even to you. | shall never for
get Revere joy when, relieved of the
burden by the confidence which he haC
reposed III me, he said to me that now
that she who was his daughter and wa
! poor, living at Blois only on the pension
of Il retired officer to whom she had APP
pointed herself nurse, knowing that she
, was not his daughter, this innocen
} child who was paying with n life O
l devotion for the sins of two guilty ones
would at least have happiness at last.
=. SAn / : Nn1nn, md thn nnn for, ". b ON