give you!"

"Then let us leave this accursed spot without another moment's delay!"

"So be it!"

They hastily quitted the bank of the little stream and went to the cabin
to prepare for their immediate departure. As they passed the spot where
Lorenzo's body had lain, Esperance noticed with a start that it was no
longer there. They entered the cabin. It was dark and deserted.
Esperance lighted a candle and, as he did so, perceived a scrap of paper
upon the floor. He stooped mechanically and picked it up. It was rumpled
as if it had been crushed in the hand and cast away. The young man
straightened it out. It was a brief letter. He held it to the candle
and, with a sickening sensation at his heart, read as follows:

DEAREST ANNUNZIATA: All is prepared. We will fly to-night. Be
ready. TONIO.

The note was in Massetti's handwriting. Esperance silently passed it to
him. The Viscount read it with eyes bulging from their sockets, his
fingers trembling so he could scarcely hold the paper.

"The evidence is conclusive!" said Esperance, icily, as Massetti
finished reading. "It is a confession! You abducted Annunziata Solara!"

"What can I say to justify myself?" cried Giovanni, bitterly. "Oh! that
accursed oath!"

"And you have sworn me to silence, also, wretched man!" said Esperance.
"Why was I so weak!"

He looked scornfully at the Viscount, who stood with bowed head. Then he
added:

"I understand you now! You did not wish me to betray you, to set the
hounds of Justice on your track, to cause you to be punished, branded
and disgraced! You were shrewd and imposed upon me. But my oath is
sacred--I will keep it! Let us return to Rome at once as we originally
proposed. There I will challenge you in due form for an alleged insult,
and we will settle this matter at the pistol's mouth!"

In a few moments more they were on their road to the Eternal City,
leaving behind them the cabin into which they had brought ruin and
death!

CHAPTER X.

THE COUNTESS OF MONTE-CRISTO.

Rome was agitated by a vague scandal, so vague, in fact, that nobody
seemed to know the precise details. It had arisen from a newspaper
account, given in the indefinite, unsatisfactory way characteristic of
Roman journalism. One of the city journals had published the statement
that a young and very handsome peasant girl, living with her father in
the country beyond the Trastavere, had recen