rms.

Benedetto frowningly looked on. He had at last achieved his object.
Unable to injure the man he hated, he had wounded him through his son,
his only child!

"Farewell," sighed Esperance, "I love thee, Jane, but I am dying!"

"And I die with you!" answered Jane, with paling lips.

And as if the angel of death touched them both at the same time, they
slept in eternal night.

Benedetto did not move. Suddenly he started. Loud noises were heard at
the door of the deserted house.

"We are here, Esperance! We bring you aid!" voices called in cheering
tones.

Benedetto looked about like a wild boar at bay. Every issue was cut off.
He knew that he had no pity to expect, for when these men beheld him
here with his two victims they would take his life without the smallest
hesitation. He rushed to the window and opened it; the Seine ran dark at
his feet.

Benedetto waited until Fanfar and his friends entered the room, and
then crying out to them, "You are too late! I have killed the son of
Monte-Cristo!" leaped into the river.

Goutran rushed to Esperance, and lifting him in his arms, said
despairingly: "Dead! murdered!"

And in the presence of these two young creatures so beautiful in death,
the men uncovered their bowed heads and Carmen knelt in passionate
weeping.

CHAPTER XLVII.

THE SPECTRE.

Just as Benedetto leaped into the Seine, another man entered the room
where the victims lay. This man was Sanselme.

It will be remembered that the former convict had been present at the
conversation in which Fanfar and his companions resolved to rescue
Esperance. The sick man, unable to move, still down with fever, saw them
go.

The mad woman also remained in the room, saying over and over again:
"Benedetto is my son, my son, and he killed me!" While Sanselme repeated
Jane's name without cessation. By degrees his strength returned to him,
his nerves were all in a quiver.

Jane in danger and he lying there idle! No, no, that could not be! He
rose from the bed, and supporting himself by the wall, got out of the
house. Where was he going? He knew not. He endeavored to collect his
thoughts, and suddenly a name stood out clear in his brain.
Monte-Cristo, yes it was to the hotel of Monte-Cristo that he must go.
There, at all events, he should find Fanfar, and together they would
look for Jane. At first Sanselme could hardly walk, but his tread became
gradually firmer. Just as he reached the Hotel de Monte-Cr