Volume I Part 12 (2/2)
”Three months later, Renee de St Meran became my wife, the battle of Waterloo followed, and Napoleon was deposed forever On the 6th of May, 1816, hter It was very sickly, though, and my mother-in-law feared it would not live until the next day On the night following the birth of the child I was sitting reading atsoftly called froht I was mistaken, but the cry was repeated, and I quietly slipped out Near the garden hedge lay a white forhtly, and I sao vent to a low ure; when I perceived the glistening eyes and the satiny dark curls, I no longer doubted but what the woman who lay before me was Naya, the sister of the Rajah Siwadji
”'You are Monsieur de Villefort?' she said, in a gentle voice
”'Yes, and you are Naya,' I said, to make sure
”'I am My husband, the Rajah Duttjah, is dead Save my child!'
”At these words the woman opened the white mantle which covered her, and I saw a new-born babe, which rapped up in a silk cloth The poor mother looked anxiously at me I took the child in my arms and a happy smile passed over the pale face
”'Now I can die peacefully,' she whispered; 'land--I felt ht and day I have wandered Barely two hours ago ed th failed me--here--is--the--bracelet--'
”She paused suddenly--I bent over her--she was dead Froold bracelet, and ran into the house My as fast asleep I laid the child in the cradle nearwhether I should call the nurse who slept in the next roo child next to a dead one Our little daughter had breathed her last!
”I stood as if struck by lightning All the proud hopes we had built on the child's birth were gone Suddenly the strange child began to cry, andhands I dressed the strange child--it was a girl, too--in the clothes ofthe silk cloth about the latter, I carried her to the garden and placed her in Naya's arms
”One hour later ave her Naya's daughter!”
”Did not Madae which had been made?” asked the district-attorney
”Oh, yes; olden cross around our child's neck just after it was born; in e child; I first denied, then confessed, everything Instead of heaping reproaches on me, she acquiesced in the fraud The next day hter was baptized under the name of Valentine de Villefort, and on the bed of the child, my happy parents-in-law laid my appointment as district-attorney in Paris, and bonds to the value of three hundred thousand francs Naya, with the dead child in her arms, was found the next day at our door
They were both buried in the potter's field The papers Naya carried ritten in the Indian language; they were given to ether with the wax impression and the half of the bracelet, have lain in my private portfolio which always stands near my bed”
Upon a wink fronated; everything was found there as he had said
”Did you never hear again frony after a pause
”Yes; three years later the rajah wrote ain a captive of the English, and only had an opportunity at the end of a year to escape Together with the Rajah Scindia, who later on went over to England, he had again begun the struggle for independence; he is now living in the interior of Hindustan, waiting for a better opportunity He askedof her, and that ended our correspondence
”This is my confession Now use justice and erase frohter rests the name of Valentine de Villefort”
”Suppose Valentine de Villefort is still alive?” asked D'Avigny solemnly
CHAPTER XIII
FORGIVENESS
Both Villefort and Monsieur de Flambois uttered a cry of astonishment, and while the latter stammered forth an ”Impossible,” the sick man whispered: ”To-day miracles do not occur any more!”
”Gentlemen,” said the physician quietly, ”you know I am a sensible man; why should I try to tell you a fable?”
”But I was at the funeral,” stammered Flambois
”I also, and yet I tell you the dead wony, ”or if ant to call it by its proper nahter of Naya and the Rajah Duttjah lives”