FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   >>  
justification for writing you two letters in one week, though I should make the accident a habit if I were sure it would more please you than perplex you. "Prince Pierre, son of Prince Lucien Bonaparte, arrived in New York two days ago, and yesterday morning he came to the Atlantic Bank, and asked for my husband. When he made known his business, Harry sent for me, that I might speak with him. "Dear Cure, hearts and instincts were right in Pontiac: our unhappy friend Valmond was that child of Napoleon, born at St. Helena, of whom he himself spoke at his death in your home. His mother was the Countess of Carnstadt. At the beginning of an illness which followed Napoleon's death, the child was taken from her by Prince Lucien Bonaparte, and was brought up and educated as the son of poor peasants in Italy. No one knew of his birth save the companions in exile of the Great Emperor. All of them, with the exception of Count Bertrand, believed, as Valmond said, that the child had died in infancy at St. Helena. "Prince Lucien had sworn to the mother that he would care personally for the child, and he fulfilled his promise by making him a page in his household, and afterwards a valet--base redemption of a vow. "But even as Valmond drew our hearts to him, so at last he won Prince Lucien's, as he had from the first won Prince Pierre's. "It was not until after Valmond's death, when receiving the residue of our poor friend's estate, that Prince Pierre learned the whole truth from Count Bertrand. He immediately set sail for New York, and next week he will secretly visit you, for love of the dead man, and to thank you and our dear avocat, together with all others who believed in and befriended his unfortunate kinsman. "Ah, dear Cure, think of the irony of it all--that a man be driven, by the very truth in his blood, to that strangest of all impostures--to impersonate himself--He did it too well to be the mere comedian; I felt that all the time. I shall show his relics now with more pride than sorrow. Prince Pierre dines with us to-night. He looks as if he had the Napoleonic daring,--or rashness,--but I am sure he has not the good heart of our Valmond Napoleon...." II The haymakers paused and leaned upon their forks, children left the strawberry vines and climbed upon the fences, as the coach from the distant city dashed down the street towards the four corners, and the welcoming hotel, with its big dormer windows an
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   >>  



Top keywords:
Prince
 

Valmond

 

Lucien

 
Pierre
 

Napoleon

 

hearts

 

friend

 

Helena

 

mother

 

Bertrand


believed

 
Bonaparte
 

immediately

 
impersonate
 
impostures
 

strangest

 

learned

 

comedian

 

driven

 

writing


secretly

 

avocat

 

letters

 

befriended

 

unfortunate

 
kinsman
 

relics

 

distant

 

dashed

 

fences


climbed

 

children

 
strawberry
 

street

 

dormer

 

windows

 

welcoming

 

corners

 

Napoleonic

 

daring


rashness
 
sorrow
 

estate

 

haymakers

 

paused

 
leaned
 

justification

 
perplex
 
Countess
 

Carnstadt