Volume I Part 56 (2/2)
”Savehis axe afresh, but this tiht dawned on Parlo Jacopo meant to destroy thely, and tried to take hold of the axe
The Corsican said not a word, but he, with his axe uplifted, kept Parlo at a distance, and then cut again into the keel, till a loud creaking was audible
Jacopo had at last succeeded in his object--gurgling and roaring, the agitated waters rose through the leak in the shi+p, and Parlo shrieked like a madman
”Jacopo--you carry us to destruction!”
Jacopo's pale features becarasped his shoulders, and, forcing him on the floor of the boat, pressed his knee on his chest
”Manuelita,” he called, with a voice which sounded through the storm like a trumpet, ”you shall be happy with your lover, miserable woman!”
Manuelita heard the words--she saw the quick rising flood--she saw Jacopo kneeling upon Parlo's chest, and she understood all--all!
Higher and higher still rose the water, and now Jacopo laughingly left his rival--he was drowning in the waves
Manuelita raised her folded hands in entreaty--then cah, and the boat sank, never to be seen again
The next day the sea was serene and caled in fishi+ng noticed aon the strand Alarnized Jacopo!
Singularly enough, life was not quite extinct; the fisher brought the half-dead hbors Jacopo soon revived as far as his body was concerned, but his mind remained affected
A few days later the corpses of Parlo and Manuelita were driven on the strand, and nohat had caused Jacopo to become insane was no more a riddle--had he not in one day lost the wife and the friend?
Jacopo's madness was of a quiet kind; for hours he could sit on the shore and watch the playful movements of the waves; sometimes he bent over the blue waters as if he were in search of so, and then he shook his head sorrowfully One day he sat again during a heavy gale on the strand; he saw a boat in which twowith the waves In his eyes light began to dawn all at once He plunged into the water and soon had reached the boat Breathless stood the people who saw it and noticed all histoward the shore, holding a huthe worave
In expectation of so, he knelt down by the woman, and when she opened her eyes Jacopo uttered sorrowfully:
”It is not her,” and then departed
From this day Jacopo's madness was broken; he certainly roamed about for days on the strand, but the veil which had clouded his ed it caeously upon saving the lives of those in danger
Thus not a week passed in which Jacopo had not found opportunity to save people from shi+pwreck: the inhabitants on the strand surrounded him with a Godlike veneration, and whenever a vessel was in danger there he was on the spot Heaven seerave, and soon his word on the strand becaan clearly to reme, and in order to drown those recollections he becalish sailor, in whonized the Count of Monte-Cristo; also Jacopo knew the voice of his beloved master, and his heart became animated with fresh hopes when he called him to his help As Jacopo knelt before the count, Monte-Cristo put aside the long, entangled hair which hung down over the Corsican's face, and, in a sorrowful tone and coht, said to him:
”Jacopo, you have suffered heavily!”
The Corsican sobbed bitterly, and the count continued: ”How long it is since I saw your bright face on the strand; at that time you were happy in the possession of Manuelita, and to-day I find you broken, despairing, and--alone!”