nsions with his
peculiar smile of assurance, but I observed that his white handkerchief
was spotted with blood, and he almost immediately left the Chamber."

"That man will kill himself in the cause he has espoused," remarked
Debray. "See how ghastly he now looks. But so much the better for the
Ministry. He is a formidable foe. Indeed, that loge contains the two
most powerful opponents of the Government."

"And who are those men just entering the box?" asked Beauchamp.

"None other than the two rival astronomers of Europe," said Debray, "and
yet most intimate friends. The taller and elder, the one with gray hair,
a dark, sharp Bedouin countenance, and that large, wild, black eye, with
a smile of mingled sarcasm and humor ever on his thin lip, is Emanuel
Arago. The other, the short, robust man, with fair complexion, sandy
hair, bright blue eye and vivacious expression, is Le Verrier, the most
tireless star-gazer science has produced since Galileo. But hush! the
curtain is up."

"Oh! it matters not," said the Count; "only Gennaro and the Spaniard
appear in the second act, and I have neither eyes nor ears save for the
Duchess to-night. But who are those, Beauchamp?"

"Where?"

"In the loge on the first tier, next to the Minister's and directly
opposite to that of M. Dantes?"

"Ah! two officers of the Spahis and two most exquisite women!" exclaimed
Debray. "They belong, doubtless, to the African party in the Minister's
loge. Your lorgnette, Count. What a splendid woman!"

Hardly had the Secretary raised the glass to his eyes before he dropped
it with the exclamation:

"A miracle! a miracle!"

"What?" cried both of the other young men, turning to the box at which
Debray was gazing.

"Messieurs, do you remember the fair Valentine de Villefort, whose
untimely and mysterious demise all the young people of Paris so much
bewailed, some two or three years ago, and whose lovely remains, we,
with our own eyes, saw deposited in the Saint-Meran and de Villefort
vault at Pere Lachaise, one bitter cold autumn evening, and there
listened most patiently and piously to a whole breviary of mournful
speeches, declarative of the said Valentine's most superlative
excellence?"

"Undoubtedly, we remember it well," was the reply.

"Then behold, and never dare to doubt the reappearance of the dead again
to the ocular organs of humanity."

"Valentine de Villefort!" exclaimed the Count, after a careful and
scrutinizing survey, "by