k ago to-day, in fact--a detachment of her band
had attacked and destroyed a party of French troops, who had with them
as prisoner a young Englishman--yourself of course. She stated that in
the attack you had unfortunately been wounded, and your wound having
been left unattended to for some hours, fever had set in. She nursed
you as well as she could up to Sunday, when finding that no improvement
in your condition took place, she grew alarmed, and having learned from
your disjointed ravings that you had some business with me, determined
to come on to the chateau and request that I would take you under my
care. I of course assented at once, and in a couple of hours more you
were brought here, strapped to a stretcher--that being the only way in
which you could be kept sufficiently quiescent to prevent irreparable
injury to your wounded arm.

"Circumstances did not permit of my sending into Ajaccio for a
physician, but most fortunately my daughter's old nurse Maria is well
skilled in matters relating to medicine and surgery, and her services
were at once called into requisition. She soon discovered that the
unskilful treatment of your wound was the chief cause of your illness,
and with infinite difficulty, for you were very violent, we succeeded in
getting the limb reset, and the wound properly attended to. This done,
the fever soon yielded to the influence of the medicines which the good
soul administered with rigorous punctuality. In the meantime, however,
you spoke several times about certain papers concerning which you seemed
to be singularly anxious, and at length by patiently listening to your
rambling utterances we were enabled to make a shrewd guess as to their
whereabouts. I set out in search of them, and discovered your bag, with
the papers intact, safely concealed beneath a pile of brushwood in the
corner of the old hut on the moor."

"Then I have been ill a whole week?" I exclaimed in considerable
dismay.

"Exactly so," replied the count. "How long did you imagine your illness
had lasted?"

"About two days," I replied.

"Well, it is just a week," remarked the count. "I hope you are not in
any very serious hurry to leave us. In the first place I doubt whether
Maria will consent to your rising from your bed for at least another
week, and after that you will be some time regaining a sufficiency of
strength to enable you to travel, and in the next place I am anxious to
cultivate the acquaintance of