, and then, in
consequence of this good action, God would have blessed us.' In reply I
gave her the half of the linen I had kept in order to reclaim him if we
became rich."

"What letters were marked on the linen?" said Monte Cristo.

"An H and an N, surmounted by a baron's coronet."

"By heaven, M. Bertuccio, you make use of heraldic terms; where did you
study heraldry?"

"In your service, excellency, where everything is learned."

"Go on, I am curious to know two things."

"What are they, your excellency?"

"What became of this little boy? for I think you told me it was a boy,
M. Bertuccio."

"No excellency, I do not recollect telling you that."

"I thought you did; I must have been mistaken."

"No, you were not, for it was in reality a little boy. But your
excellency wished to know two things; what was the second?"

"The second was the crime of which you were accused when you asked for a
confessor, and the Abbe Busoni came to visit you at your request in the
prison at Nimes."

"The story will be very long, excellency."

"What matter? you know I take but little sleep, and I do not suppose you
are very much inclined for it either." Bertuccio bowed, and resumed his
story.

"Partly to drown the recollections of the past that haunted me, partly
to supply the wants of the poor widow, I eagerly returned to my trade of
smuggler, which had become more easy since that relaxation of the
laws which always follows a revolution. The southern districts were
ill-watched in particular, in consequence of the disturbances that were
perpetually breaking out in Avignon, Nimes, or Uzes. We profited by this
respite on the part of the government to make friends everywhere. Since
my brother's assassination in the streets of Nimes, I had never
entered the town; the result was that the inn-keeper with whom we were
connected, seeing that we would no longer come to him, was forced to
come to us, and had established a branch to his inn, on the road from
Bellegarde to Beaucaire, at the sign of the Pont du Gard. We had thus,
at Aigues-Mortes, Martigues, or Bouc, a dozen places where we left our
goods, and where, in case of necessity, we concealed ourselves from the
gendarmes and custom-house officers. Smuggling is a profitable trade,
when a certain degree of vigor and intelligence is employed; as for
myself, brought up in the mountains, I had a double motive for fearing
the gendarmes and custom-house officers, as my appearance bef