“My father is not engaged in this fearful plot, is he, sir?” asked Valentine, clasping her hands.
“No; and yet your father, a man accustomed to judicial accusations, ought to have known that all these deaths have not happened naturally; it is he who should have watched over you—he should have occupied my place—he should have emptied that glass—he should have risen against the assassin. Spectre against spectre!” he murmured in a low voice, as he concluded his sentence.
“Sir,” said Valentine, “I will do all I can to live, for there are two beings who love me and will die if I die—my grandfather and Maximilian.”
“I will watch over them as I have over you.”
“Well, sir, do as you will with me;” and then she added, in a low voice, “oh, heavens, what will befall me?”
“Whatever may happen, Valentine, do not be alarmed; though you suffer; though you lose sight, hearing, consciousness, fear nothing; though you should awake and be ignorant where you are, still do not fear; even though you should find yourself in a sepulchral vault or coffin. Reassure yourself, then, and say to yourself: ‘At this moment, a friend, a father, who lives for my happiness and that of Maximilian, watches over me!’ ”
“Alas, alas, what a fearful extremity!”
“Valentine, would you rather denounce your stepmother?”
“I would rather die a hundred times—oh, yes, die!”
“No, you will not die; but will you promise me, whatever happens, that you will not complain, but hope?”
“I will think of Maximilian!”