That have you sworn, and I know you will hold your word
sacred and keep your oath!"
Count Paulo dropped his head upon his breast and sighed deeply.
"I must therefore leave her!" said he.
"Your own welfare demands it."
"But how is she to live during our absence? Our money will not suffice
to the end. Alas! we had so surely calculated on this remittance from my
estates, and now it fails us!"
"We will sell that costly ornament of brilliants which you had destined
as a present for Natalie on her seventeenth birthday."
"Ah," sighed the count, "you have a means for the removal of every
obstacle. I must therefore go!"
"And I go with you," said Cecil. "I would, if it must be so, be able to
die for you!"
"They will destroy all three of us!" said the count. "Believe me, the
knife is already sharpened for our throats! Believe also, Cecil, that
I tremble not from fear of death. But I fear for Natalie! Ah, I already
seem to see the approach of her murderers, to see them seize her with
their bloody hands, and I shall not be there to protect her!"
While Count Paulo thus spoke, with a sad, foreboding soul, those two
mysterious men, who had so threateningly watched and listened to Natalie
and her friend, still remained under the wall.
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