Lucilio watched him so closely that he felt intimidated; the marquis repelled his passionate embrace, and Adamas was dazed, and did not seem to recognize unhesitatingly the similarity of the handwritings.
"Come, do not weep, my child," said the perturbed marquis, taking from Adamas's hands his brother's letter and the worn and crumpled paper that Mario had brought. "What is the matter, Adamas, and why are you trembling so? What is that paper, all covered with black spots? Vrai Dieu! those are blood-stains! Bring the candle nearer, Adamas, and let me look! Why, my friends! O Lord God in Heaven! Jovelin! Adamas! Look at this! I am not dreaming, am I? It is the handwriting of my darling brother! every letter is his! And this blood——Ah! my friends! that is a very cruel thing to see. But—where did you get this, Mario?"
"Read, read, monsieur," cried Adamas, "make sure that you are right."
"I cannot," said the marquis, turning deathly pale; "my heart fails me! Whence comes this paper?"
"It was found on my father," said Mario, recovering his courage; "look, see if it is not a letter for you that he intended to send you. Monsieur Anjorrant made me read it many times; but your name was not on it, and we never knew to whom to send it."
"Your father!" repeated the marquis, as if waking from a dream; "your father!"
"Pray read it, monsieur!" cried Adamas; "make sure."
"No! not yet," said the marquis. "If I am dreaming, I do not desire to be awakened. Let me fancy that this lovely child—Come here, boy, to my arms.—And do you, Adamas, read it if you can! I could never do it!"
"I will read it," said Mario; "follow with your eyes." And he read as follows:
"Monsieur and dear brother:
"Pay no heed to the letter you will receive after this, which I wrote at Genoa, under date of the sixteenth of next month, in anticipation of a long and dangerous journey, during which, as I feared that you would be anxious on my account, I desired to allay your anxiety by a post-dated letter, and thereby prevent your making inquiries for me in that country, where I desired that my absence should not be noticed.
"As I have arrived here, thank God! more quickly and with less trouble than I dared hope, and am now out of difficulty and danger, I propose to tell you of my adventures, which I am at last able to do without concealment or reserve, leaving the details, however, for the approaching, eagerly anticipated moment when I shall be with you, accompanied by my beloved and honored wife, and, God willing, by the child of whom she will make me the father in a few days!
"It will suffice for you to know to-day, that, having been married secretly last year, in Spain, to a beautiful lady of noble birth, against the will of her parents, I was obliged to leave her on my master's service, and to return to her, with the same secrecy, to rescue her from the tyranny of her parents and take her to France, where we have at last arrived to-day, under favor of our precautions and disguises.
"We expect to stop at Pau, whence I shall forward this letter to you, to be followed by another which will announce, if it be God's pleasure, my wife's safe delivery, and in which I shall have the leisure that I have not at this moment, to tell you——"