Volume I Part 40 (2/2)

”Ha! then it was Benedetto!” exclaimed the count

”His bullet was intended for h the heart”

”Theto Bartolomeo, he added: ”and how shall I thank you?”

”Ah!--that--does good,” stammered Bartolo Your hand--farewell--child Italy--is--free!”

The lassy

Spero sobbed bitterly, and the count whispered:

”May the earth be light to you If you have sinned, your love for your country has made atonement!”

One hour later the count, Haydee and Spero bade adieu to Aslitta and Luciola in the Cafe Vidiserti

”Farewell, lance at Aslitta, who held the diva in his arms

Aslitta nodded

”To-day Luciola will be ently said

”Why do you wish to leave us?” exclai

”Because others need ”

CHAPTER xxxIV

SERGEANT COUCOU

Ten years had passed since Mercedes had bade her only son good-by She lived in the small house in the Allee de Meillan at Marseilles, which forh her face was pale and her eyes no longer sparkled as of yore, theof General de Morcerf was still a wonderfully handso out upon the sea Behind her stood a man in the uniform of a Zouave Small, brown and thin, he looked like the type of what a Zouave is generally thought to be

What the Zouave's name was no one exactly knew He had eant Coucou,” so that after a while he was never called otherwise

The sergeant's cradle, in spite of his brown skin, had not stood in Africa, but in the Faubourg Merceau in Paris

Coucou was the son of a poor washerwoutter, and pretty soon he becahborhood His mother decided the time had co; only he ii na to Algiers, and so Coucou becaood-by caan to weep, but Coucou consoled her

”You see, mamma,” he said, confidently, ”I will make a name for myself, and when you read about my heroic deeds in the papers, you will be proud of hed between her sobs The few pennies she had saved she used to buy a pair of spectacles to read the forthco chronicles; for she was one of that class of innocent people who believe that the faculty of reading rests in spectacles