ecessary
for you to bind yourself by any vow,' said he; 'I know and admire the
Corsican nature too well to fear you. Here, take this,' continued he,
after rapidly writing the few lines I brought to your excellency, and
upon receipt of which you deigned to receive me into your service,
and proudly I ask whether your excellency has ever had cause to repent
having done so?"

"No," replied the count; "I take pleasure in saying that you have served
me faithfully, Bertuccio; but you might have shown more confidence in
me."

"I, your excellency?"

"Yes; you. How comes it, that having both a sister and an adopted son,
you have never spoken to me of either?"

"Alas, I have still to recount the most distressing period of my life.
Anxious as you may suppose I was to behold and comfort my dear sister,
I lost no time in hastening to Corsica, but when I arrived at Rogliano I
found a house of mourning, the consequences of a scene so horrible that
the neighbors remember and speak of it to this day. Acting by my advice,
my poor sister had refused to comply with the unreasonable demands of
Benedetto, who was continually tormenting her for money, as long as he
believed there was a sou left in her possession. One morning that he had
demanded money, threatening her with the severest consequences if she
did not supply him with what he desired, he disappeared and remained
away all day, leaving the kind-hearted Assunta, who loved him as if he
were her own child, to weep over his conduct and bewail his absence.
Evening came, and still, with all the patient solicitude of a mother,
she watched for his return.

"As the eleventh hour struck, he entered with a swaggering air, attended
by two of the most dissolute and reckless of his boon companions. She
stretched out her arms to him, but they seized hold of her, and one of
the three--none other than the accursed Benedetto exclaimed,--'Put her
to torture and she'll soon tell us where her money is.'

"It unfortunately happened that our neighbor, Vasilio, was at Bastia,
leaving no person in his house but his wife; no human creature beside
could hear or see anything that took place within our dwelling. Two held
poor Assunta, who, unable to conceive that any harm was intended to her,
smiled in the face of those who were soon to become her executioners.
The third proceeded to barricade the doors and windows, then returned,
and the three united in stifling the cries of terror incited by the
sight o