the time; you should have told me this two months ago; it is too late now. Depart instantly, or I will compel you to do so.'
"I looked at him an instant to see if, by renewed entreaties, there was anything to hope. But this man was of stone. I approached him, and said in a low voice, * Well, since you know the Corsicans so well, you know that they always keep their word. You think that it was a good deed to kill my brother, who was a Bonapartist, because you are a royalist! Well, I, who am a Bonapartist also, declare one thing to you, which is, that I will kill you! From this .moment I declare the vendetta against you; so protect yourself as well as you can, for the next time we meet your last hour has come!' And before he had recovered from his surprise, I opened the door and left the room."
"Ah, ah!" said Monte-Cristo, "with your innocent appearance you do those things, M. Bertuccio and to a procureur du roi! Moreover, did he know what was meant by this terrible word 'vendetta'?"
"He knew so well, that from that moment he shut himself in his house, and never went out unattended, seeking me high and low. Fortunately, I was so well concealed that he could not find me. Then he became alarmed, and dared not reside any longer at Nîmes; so he solicited a change of residence, and, as he was in reality very influential, he was nominated to Versailles. But, as you know, a Corsican who has sworn to avenge himself cares not for distance; so his carriage, fast as it went, was never above half a day's journey before me, who followed him on foot. The most important thing was, not to kill him only for I had an opportunity of doing so a hundred times but to kill him without being discovered at least, withoutbeing arrested. I no longer belonged to myself, for I had my sister-in-law to protect and provide for.
"During three months I watched M. de Villefort; for three months he took not a step out-of-doors without my following him. At length I discovered that he went mysteriously to Auteuil. I followed him thither, and I saw him enter the house where we now are; only, instead of entering by the great door that looks into the street, he came on horse back, or in his carriage, left the one or the other at the little inn, and entered by the gate you see there!"
Monte-Cristo made a sign with his head that he could discern amid the darkness the door to which Bertuccio alluded.
"As I had nothing more to do at Versailles, I went to Auteuil, and gained all the information I could. If I wished to surprise him, it was evident this was the spot to lie in wait for him. The house belonged, as the concierge informed your excellency, to M. de Saint-Meran, Villefort's father-in-law. M. de Saint-Meran lived at Marseilles, so that this country house was useless to him, and it was reported to be let to a young widow, known only by the name of 'the Baroness.'
